


Sarcasm and Puns (old version)

by MaliceAlyce



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alcohol, Bad Puns, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus, Drunk Texting, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/F, F/M, Female Frisk, Female Reader, Fluff, Friendship, Kittens, M/M, Mute Frisk, Post-Pacifist Route, Reader Is Not Frisk, References to Drugs, Slow Burn, Swearing, Tattoos, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-05-23 22:33:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 47,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6132324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaliceAlyce/pseuds/MaliceAlyce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You're an introverted person, have been all of your life but it wasn't as if you were shy, you were just content to have your only friends be your brother and your roommate. Though when your brother's young daughter makes friends with the human ambassador of monsters you open up to the idea of having a larger group of friends.<br/>-<br/>Everything seems much slower in autumn, the chill in the air causes the world to screech to a crawl as the leaves change, even the city seemed less lively. You always thought this was true but over the course of the last couple of years you discovered there was an exception to the hushed state that this time of year brought. This break from the lull of dreary, sluggish afternoons came in the form of a hyper six year old, fresh out of school, tugging you towards the playground with the single minded determination of a freight train.<br/>Slow burn, like really slow and lots of friendship with the whole group.<br/>THIS HAS BEEN REVAMPED BEAUTIFULLY PLEASE REDIRECT TO MY NEW VERSION IF YOU LIKE THIS! https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130296</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Niece's new friend.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a new and improved version of this story!  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130296

Everything seems much slower in autumn, the chill in the air causes the world to screech to a crawl as the leaves change, even the city seemed less lively. You always thought this was true but over the course of the last couple of years you discovered there was an exception to the hushed state that this time of year brought. This break from the lull of dreary, sluggish afternoons came in the form of a hyper six year old, fresh out of school, tugging you towards the playground with the single minded determination of a freight train. When your niece saw a swing set there was no stopping her. She held your hand until she was comfortably inside of the playground area of the park but after that she frantically slung her backpack off and continued her warpath towards the empty swing.

"Stay where I can see you!" you called out to her.

"Uh huh!" she answered back already halfway across the park barely dodging the few other children in her way.

You chuckled at her enthusiasm picking up her small backpack and watching her hurl herself happily onto the empty swing next to a slightly older looking, androgynous child. You looked up and glanced around the park noticing there was only a few close benches with a good line of sight to your niece. Most of the seats fully inhabited by mothers, tired joggers, and others reading or just taking the time to bird watch but you noticed the one bench with the best view to the swings only had one other occupant leaving you plenty of room to comfortably outlast the burst of after school energy you know your niece has to burn through.

As you moved closer you noticed the other person sitting on the bench was quite a bit larger than you thought at first glance when you scanned the area for optimal seat locations. They appeared to be rather feminine but also very imposing. You realized that you should probably find her intimidating but there was just something about her that seemed too kind for you to worry too much about it. She was an ethereal goat-like creature covered in pristine white fur and wearing a long, flowing purple dress. She was a creature that somehow exuded grace and obviously had to be one of the monsters that had made a surprise appearance out of Mt. Ebott over the last two years or so.

When you got close enough you started to notice just how motherly she looked. Her nose, or maybe it was considered a snout, with a delicately balanced pair of reading glasses was buried in a thick tome which she occasionally looked up from, her eyes darting out towards the playground before resettling back into reading. Out of sheer curiosity, you had to check the small crowd of children for similar features on one of them. While there were a couple of monster children mixed in enjoying the park none of them looked much like her, however you rarely saw too many of the same type of monster anyway. You shrugged it off as another weird magic thing you were sure you would never fully grasp as you checked in on your niece. 

She was still swinging next to the same child as earlier and seemed fully enraptured in whatever story she was weaving to them as the other child nodded along, at least they didn't look bored or annoyed with her. You smiled fondly at their innocent interaction glad that your niece was easily fitting into the new town. Drawn back to the moment you realized you have probably been standing awkwardly next to the bench staring at the swing set for too long.

"Excuse me?" you say hoping to gather the older woman's attention.

She was evidently surprised to hear someone so close to her but very quickly regained her composure, turning to face you with a slight smile that displayed the small fangs she had along with her large, dark red, intensely expressive eyes. You stalled out for just a moment as you stared at her, somehow just barely managing to keep any utterance of how strangely beautiful she looked to yourself.

"Yes my chi-" her soft, lilting voice paused mid sentence before starting again. "Yes, may I help you?" she looked up at you with an expression that conveyed she was genuinely willing to help if not just curious.

"I was just wondering if I could sit here." you gestured to the empty space on the bench to emphasize your point.

"Oh, of course." she smiled brightly evidently surprised by your request already scooting over before she looked back up shyly "If you wish."

You shrugged and gave her a reassuring smile dropping your niece's backpack on the ground nearby, taking the offered seat. She closed her book resting it neatly on her lap without continuing to speak instead giving you the option to start a conversation without worrying about interrupting her. It wasn't as though you had no social skills, no matter what your brother said, or had some sort of panic attack when talking to people because you weren't shy, just introverted. Not being the biggest "people person" you always felt awkward starting conversations.

"So, books are a thing huh?" you cringed at yourself silently cursing your brain for letting you say that. 

She brought her hand up to her mouth in a vain attempt to muffle her sudden soft laughter. She looked at you apologetically when her laughter petered out. "Yes, I suppose they are. Do you enjoy reading?" she asked mercifully understanding what you were getting at and not making fun of your fumbled words.

"Yeah, I'm actually wishing I thought to bring something to read, I'll probably be here a while." you sighed in relief when that came out more coherently. "Well maybe if I knew I'd be coming out here I would of planned better." you chuckled a bit in a self deprecating manner.

"Spontaneous trip to the park?" she asked with an amused smile.

"Yeah, sort of." you returned the smile. "My brother called me last minute asking me to pick up his kid from school, and I figured I'd let her run off some energy before taking her home." you explained before catching yourself, wondering why you where telling her all of this. You didn't even know this woman's name and yet you felt comfortable talking to her, you briefly questioned if it was something to do with magic, like an aura she gave off or maybe it was simply just faith in your own good judge of character. Either way it was probably nicer than the default sarcastic remark you would have made to anyone you actually knew, that was a small victory, and it wasn't like you spilled your life story so you decided it wasn't too bad to confide in her a little.

"What about you? Come out here to read a lot?" you asked thinking turnabout was fair play so you might was well ask her for her story as well.

She looked as if she was about to respond when you heard your niece call your name. 

"Sorry, hold that thought." you smiled a little sheepishly cutting off her answer. "Yeah kiddo?" you called back, turning to seeing her run over to you hand in hand with the child you recognize her playing with from the swings.

The two kids came to a halt standing in front of you, you always found it a little amazing how kids could so easily go from running at full speed to abruptly idling so quickly and casually. You took in the sight of the kid that your niece had latched on to and up close you could pick out the subtly more feminine features on them, but you still chose not to make the guess until you were sure so instead you politely nodded at them in greeting before your niece regained your full attention.

"Making new friends Morrigan?" you asked your voice easily falling into a more friendly, happier tone than you usually used when talking to children.

"Uh huh so I was on the swings and she was like swinging like really really high" Morrigan launched into her babbling rant, dropping the other child's hand to make wild gestures to accompany her voice as she spoke. "and we like, like we swinged and so I was like you swing really really high and she took her hands off the swings! She moved her hands lots like that guy Daddy works with!" she rushed to try and recreate sign language clumsily before giving up and continuing her story. "Daddy says he talks with his hands! So I asked her if she does too and she does but but but I felt really bad she couldn't talk too so I talked and she listened lots!" Morrigan beamed up at you proudly as she finished her story. Ever since she started speaking you thought she definitely could talk for two and now you had proof and you couldn't help but find it cute.

"Oh yeah?" You looked from Morrigan to the other kid who nodded in agreement to your niece's story, so not deaf, mute maybe? You grinned at the two of them and ruffled your niece's hair. "Sounds fun, I told you that you would make friends here." Morrigan stood a little straighter, looking very pleased that she managed to make a friend in the city not noticing that said friend had moved from her side.

The movement besides you on the bench reminded you that the monster was still there, you glanced up to her to say something when you saw the older child hug the goat-like woman.

You were a little surprised to see the interaction as the child  began to sign eagerly to the woman as she nodded and gave brief answers, her voice full of love and pride. You saw Morrigan as she watched the exchange with rapt interest, her doe eyes fixated on the the way her new friend's hands moved when she signed. 

"Yes, very well." the woman nodded before refocusing on you and your niece. "My child wanted to let you know that her name is Frisk and she very much enjoyed meeting you Morrigan." 

"Oh, so Frisk is your kid?" you asked piecing together the series of events that had unfolded.

Frisk nodded happily in answer to your question without hesitation but the older woman looked flustered for a moment before agreeing,  "Yes, Frisk has been my daughter for a couple of years now." 

The timid way she spoke compared to her previous lighthearted, warm tone and the reflexive way her arm reached out to Frisk, as if ready to shield her or pull her away to leave the park in a hurry, made your heart ache in sympathy.

Sometimes you felt people watching you when you were with Morrigan. You knew they were curious of your relationship to the small child; mother, sister, you've even been asked if you were her babysitter. You knew most of all they assumed you where her mother and judged you for your age in relation to hers and sometimes that still bothered you as much as it did when she was born and you were still a teenager. You could only imagine how much worse that had to be for her. The kind goat woman and her adopted daughter had to get more than their fair share of stares and whispers, and maybe even worse. 

You shuddered at the thought and pushed it to the back of your mind instead of dwelling on what caused the monster to react so defensively, you grinned brightly and addressed the child, "Well it's awesome to meet you and your mom Frisk."

You relaxed when you caught the way the tall monster seemed relieved by your response even Frisk looked at you gratefully with a maturity in her eyes that you hadn't seen in them earlier, Morrigan however, was thankfully oblivious to the brief moment of tension.

Frisk signed to her mom and gave her the obvious puppy dog eyes of a child asking for something.

"I suppose I can ask." the woman replied prompting Frisk to clap gleefully. "Frisk would like to know if Morrigan would be able to come over to play sometime." 

Morrigan looked ecstatic by the idea and already let out a small string of "please"s before you had a chance to say anything. 

"I would have to ask my brother." You answered doing your best to ignore the hopeful looks of the kids in favor of trying to act like a responsible adult. You were sure he would be elated to learn Morrigan made a friend and wanted to spend time with them, but probably wouldn't be as happy if you just agreed to a playdate with a stranger without even asking him.

"I understand, maybe I can give you my number and we could arrange a time for us all to meet."

"Yeah I'm sure he would love to meet you." it dawned on you then that you still have not learned her name and for a moment you considered cowardly continuing without asking and just taking her number so your brother could figure it out later, but you decided against it. "I'm sorry, I don't think I ever got around to introducing myself." You told her your name and held your hand out for her to shake.

"I'm Toriel." she took your offered hand in her larger almost paw-like one, it was warm and soft with fur, and shook it in a gentle, friendly manner. 

You exchanged phone numbers with Toriel and talked for a while longer while Morrigan and Frisk played. You learned that she was a teacher and that Frisk was nine years old, you in turn told her that your niece was six and about your job as a portrait photographer at the mall. You liked Toriel and wouldn't mind spending more time with her, even seeing her as a friend. It's been a while since you've had more friends than your brother and your best friend who was now your roommate. You have acquaintances, people you work with and maybe a few people from school, people who you don't mind and will talk to when you're around them but not really people you would choose to hang out with. Maybe having more than two friends will be fun.


	2. The Hemsworth Debacle

You basically had to drag Morrigan away from the park and by then the sun had started to sink low in the sky, not quite setting but it was definitely late in the afternoon. The earlier azure expanse above you had been morphed into a gradient mixture of oranges that faded from red to pink and an inky indigo obscured by the looming grey clouds that seemed ever present during this time of year and had drawn closer together since this morning in a threat of rain that has only darkened them further since then. Unaware or blissfully uncaring of the general lethargic look of the world around her your niece had held your hand and skipped the whole way back to your brother's place as she told you about her day at school, her hair and backpack bouncing along with her carefree rhythm. She finally seemed to be settling into the new city and that made you able to breathe a little easier about the decision to press them into moving closer, for the past few months she pouted about leaving her first grade friends behind and had seemed resistant to the unfamiliar school. Your brother also seemed to immediately pick up on the change as well, happily taking the phone number you gave him in a whirlwind of relieved excitement. 

Lost in a haze of your thoughts you barely even noticed when you came face to face with your apartment door. You pulled your keys out of your pocket, prepared to sit back on the couch and spend the remainder of your day pleasantly zoned out, when you heard a clattering noise followed by a loud yelp coming from inside. You briefly let your forehead fall against the solid wood of the door with a dull thud accompanied by an annoyed sigh that passed through your lips in a manner that felt too routine. Pushing away from the door you easily managed to get it unlocked, taking a moment to mentally prepare yourself for whatever could possibly be waiting for you inside. You threw the door open, perhaps a little more dramatically than strictly necessary, and scanned the open layout of your apartment for the source of the disturbance.

You stood in the door frame frozen in your tracks, unable to do much more than stare slightly bewildered because this was certainly a new sight to come home to. The living room was more of a mess than normal that culminated in cluttered disarray towards the center of the room. You felt yourself caught somewhere between a disappointed groan and unstoppable laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of what was happening.

Your roommate was sat with his back to the coffee table and his legs crossed, he had gotten out one of your old decks of cards and was surrounded by what looked to be a new case of shiny plastic poker chips that were scattered across the hardwood. He had ditched his usual jacket, it lay flung across the sofa, his hair was cut short on the sides and dyed a slightly metallic cyan color that was messily sticking out in nearly every direction looking like a melted mohawk. He had grabbed onto the tiny black and white cat as it tried to scurry over to you and appeared to have been trying to force it to play cards, whining distraught when the cat knocked over the stacks of chips. Your recently adopted kitty mewed indignantly and wriggled weakly in his hands trying to wander off.

"No! You're supposed to at least look at your cards before you fold!" he reprimanded the cat very seriously snuggling the small, bored animal closer to him.

"Vincent, how are you harassing my poor kitten now?" you say using your best scolding mother voice shutting the door behind you as you toss your keys onto the kitchen counter.

"I'm not harassing him! I'm teaching Sir Hemsworth how to play Texas hold 'em. He's not a very good sport though, he gives up too easily."

You sighed repressing the urge to pinch the bridge of your nose in a defeated gesture even as you felt a small, amused smile creeping it's way onto your face.

"His name is Hemlock." you told him calmly for the umpteenth time since you brought the kitten home.

He looked at you as if he was considering the information then lifted the cat up to his ear like a small child might when speaking to a stuffed animal, his short stature and large, round eyes completing the innocent look.

"What's that? Yes?" Vincent thoughtfully nodding along, playfully over acting. "Okay, I'll tell her." he looked up at you pulling the cat away from his face and setting the ball of monochromatic fluff down on his lap. "Sir Hemsworth says Hemlock is a depressing name and prefers the title that the Queen of Kitties bestowed upon him when he saved that bus full of baby red pandas." he commented in an off handed manner as if it was common knowledge already dealing new hands for himself and the tiny cat. You couldn't stop yourself from giggling maniacally because your roommate was such a child sometimes and you knew it was one of the reasons he was your best friend.

"Guess what." you smirked when you stifled your laughter and regained your breath.

"What?" he asked as he made a vague attempt to gather up the poker chips near him into a sloppy pile.

"You are a total dork." you shook your head as you walked over to the couch.

"Yeah, I know but you love me." Vincent smirked pushing the cards away abandoning the endeavor and stood to join you.

"I'm not calling him that by the way." you added as you slumped down on the couch and grabbed the remote that was half buried underneath the mess he made from the table in front of you.

"Well I'm not calling him Hemlock." he quipped stealing the remote out of your hand as he sat down next to you and turned on the tv.

Immediately upon lighting up, the screen displayed a rather flamboyant looking, pink and black, humanoid robot in the middle of whatever campy straight to tv movie that was currently playing.

"Really?" you groaned looking from the scene to Vincent. He had overrun your tv and Netflix with a mixture of anime and Mettaton.

"What?" he asked innocently turning to give you an oblivious smile. "He's pretty freaking awesome," he shrugged at your continued deadpan look of judgement. "and don't act like it isn't a guilty pleasure of yours to binge watch his cooking show." he added ignoring your distaste to focus back on the screen.

"I can't watch it with you because the last time we did that together I came home the next day and it looked like a glitter bomb detonated in our kitchen." you pointed out rolling your eyes thinking about how you still found stray sparkles in the kitchen sometimes.

"THAT WAS ONE TIME!" he protested loudly, startling Hemlock who had nearly fallen asleep in front of the tv.

You chuckled quietly to yourself at his sudden defensive tone and hummed noncommittally.

You and Vincent stayed up for a while after that, flipping through tv channels and talking about random things that crossed your mind. This went on until it was past the point that you should have gone to bed especially since you had work so early in the morning. You grunted a good night to your friend who by now was bleary eyed and on his Nth soda. He didn't even look up from his laptop as he gave you a weak wave that ended up looking more like he was shooing you from the room. You turned the tv volume down to a whisper and lazily rolled off the sofa shuffling off to your room with Hemlock yawning and following your lead.

As soon as you crossed the threshold you shed your jacket off and switched out your jeans for a pair of soft pajama bottoms. You collapsed on your bed before leaning over the edge to lift Hemlock up as well since he was still too small to make the jump by himself. You rolled over and found yourself falling effortlessly into a dreamless sleep for the first time in days.

-

The sun rose, sluggishly peaking out above the horizon, muddled through the dull grey mess of muted colors that made up the city. Rays of its glaring white gold light streamed persistently even through the thin drapes that were haphazardly closed to cover your window. The light that poured in from the gaps striped across the room blindingly hitting your eyes. Any noise that you would have heard, from birds outside to the sounds of neighbors drifting through the walls of your apartment building were drowned out by your phone alarm that blared loudly from the pocket of last night's jeans. The combination of stimuli forcibly pulled you from sleep. Morning came all too quickly, as you knew it would considering you had only given yourself a couple hours to sleep, still you groaned groggily pulling the blanket over your head in a vain attempt to will it away so you could stay cocooned in your warm nest of a bed.

The shrill, digital chirps of your alarm won out and you couldn't listen to them any longer. You forced yourself to get up and silence its insistent beeping, your sudden movement waking Hemlock. You spared him an apologetic look as you grabbed the pants prying the phone out of the pocket to glare at the time. You loved your job, the only drawback was having to start at such an early hour. You used to work the afternoon shift but switched over so you could leave around the same time your niece got out of school. It definitely helped since your brother's hours were much more sporadic. There was no doubt you weren't the type of person that rose with the sun, more like a night owl, and now you had to get to work shortly after the mall opened every morning. You have never gone through more coffee than you have since starting the morning shift. The thought of coffee was what got you moving, if you were quick you could make a stop for coffee on your way to the studio.

You showered and rushed through your morning routine tying your hair back in a messy ponytail and getting dressed in the closest clean work clothes you could find. Quickly checking yourself in the mirror straightening the white button up and black vest you wore for you job before throwing a heavy jacket on over them and tossing on a pair of boots. You slid your phone into your pocket and grabbed your messenger bag, slinging it over one shoulder before leaving your room to feed Hemlock and grab your keys from the counter.

Making your way through the living room you saw Vincent curled up on the sofa after having finally crashed, sleeping with his laptop abandoned nearby. The tv still flickered, long since forgotten. You switched it off and went through the mental checklist in your head one last time before heading off in search of a good cup of coffee.

-

With the sun rising a little higher and the world around you slowly waking up you stopped at the small brick coffee house that had become your favorite. Briefly checking the time you pushed the door open and saw the place was predictably scarce, just barely beginning to pick up traffic of people heading to work. You did however see a small monster with orange skin and incredibly large eyes that stared intensely down at the floor. They were in a chair that was pressed up against the wall by the door, you looked at them for a moment in curiosity because they looked so lost and troubled.

When you first heard them mumble you thought you'd been caught looking and offended them until you heard the words "I came in here for a coffee but I forgot my wallet... So I'm just going to sit in this corner and pretend I'm waiting for someone."

Your first instinct was to laugh even though you sympathized with the awkwardness of their situation but they seemed to be talking more to themselves than you so you kept quiet and walked over to the counter hurried to place your order. As you waited you felt your phone vibrate alerting you of a text. You checked it as your name was called seeing your brother's photo light up your screen. Headed out of the shop, you pulled up the message managing to navigate the sidewalk that grew more crowded as you read.

'Lunch? Gotta ask you something.'

You quickly responded, telling him to meet you in the food court at noon before you put your phone away so you wouldn't be late.

-  
You stood in the food court trying to decide what to eat when you were ambushed from behind and pulled into a tight hug. You would never admit to the squeak you made in surprise. Pulling away you spun around to be greeted with your brother's smiling face. He gave you a small wave, the tattoos on his arms showing where he had rolled up his sleeves.

"Gabriel! You're going to give me a heart attack one of these days." you sighed and clutched your chest.

"Yeah well maybe if you were more used to hugs you wouldn't have a panic attack every time I stop by." Gabriel rolled his eyes, smirk betraying the annoyed tone he used.

"If you didn't insist on sneaking up on me it would be fine." you crossed your arms trying to look affronted.

He laughed waving off your comment "Burgers?"

"Yes please, I am starving!" you agreed whole heartedly, having not eaten all day.

You ate with your brother, both of you scarfing down your food like ravenous wolves which left you with more time in your break than you thought. Gabe wandered with you through the mall eventually ending up in the outdoor plaza area in the center before you remembered the text he sent you earlier.

"So what's the big mysterious question?" you asked.

"You're off on Saturday right?" it was a question but he said it like a statement leading you along his train of thought until he got to the point he wanted to make.

"Yeah?" drawing out the word to urge him to continue.

"Well how about dinner?" there was a mischievous glint in his eyes that was slightly worrying, but you chose to ignored it.

"Sure thing, when?"

"Five, I'll text you the address."

You glared at him suspiciously "And why would I need to know a new address?"

"Because you don't know where Toriel lives, obviously." the look on his face was one someone would use when dealing with a particularly dense person who wasn't following simple logic.

"Toriel? You mean Frisk's mom?"

"Yep." he popped the 'p' sound and nodded encouragingly as you worked through what he meant.

You glared, knowing he was being deliberately vague to fuck with you "Why am I suppose to have dinner with Toriel?"

"Because," he sighed in an exaggerated manner as if he was extremely disappointed in your deductive skills. "it's going to be a 'getting to know your kid's new friend's family' type thing and she invited you. Oh look ice cream!"

Gabriel distracted you from trying to process the information, or maybe he was legitimately excited by the small food vendor cart with the bright yellow and red striped umbrella that he pointed at. You knew there was no underestimating his sweet tooth.

"Isn't it getting too cold for ice cream?" you complained as he dragged you toward the cart manned by a pastel blue bunny man in a shirt that matched the umbrella.

He was leaned up against it amenably chatting with a cat monster who was propped up against the wall nearby with the cigarette in between his lips. The fact that he was smoking and wearing an overly tacky fast food uniform you figured he was probably on his own lunch break.

"C'mon, live a little will you?" Gabriel chided you.

You shrugged now close enough to read 'Nice Cream' on the side of the trolley, "Yeah, fine."

"Oh by the way I said you would make cookies." he added quickly before getting the bunny's attention.

You groaned and slapped his arm, you had no clue what he had gotten you into now. Soon Gabe left to pick Morrigan up from school and you went back to work, but for the rest of the day your mind kept drifting back to the conversation.

You thought of ways you could easily get out of going but you didn't know if you even wanted to. You liked Toriel and she had asked you to come so you guessed she didn't mind you either. Frisk was also a good kid and your niece really seemed to open up to her. You didn't want to ruin the first friendship she developed since moving here, so how much could one dinner party really hurt? You would have Gabriel there with you and he always made it easier to deal with people. These thoughts kept looping in your mind for the remainder of your shift following you the whole way back to your apartment and by the time you got there you were surprised to find you were actually excited by the idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thrive on feedback, feel free to comment!


	3. Baking Messes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is late, I don't want to bug you with why but everything should be better now and the next chapter will be up much quicker than this one was. Thank you!

Waking up late on a Saturday was probably one of the most beautiful feelings you could think of. The sheer number of weekdays you had to lay in bed trying to gather the motivation needed to get dressed and go to work was getting kind of sad, so the few extra hours of sleep you got on your days off was a luxury you never skipped out on. It was sometime in the early afternoon and the sun had started to warm the room. The mild heat seeping through the window, rousing you from slumber. Golden light flooded into the dark room in columns, specks of dust floated and danced suspended in the beams. Not quite fully awake and exceedingly comfortable you wanted to roll over and sleep just a little longer, though the tiny little paw that landed on your face seemed to disagree. Hemlock mewed and stood on you, now with both front paws on your face and his hind legs on your collarbone. You groaned tiredly at him and he mewled back in pseudo conversation. You guessed it was feeding time and your stomach rumbled in sympathy at the thought of food. You found yourself hungry enough to drag yourself out of bed regardless of the tempting warmth of your blankets so still in your fluffy pajama pants and an over sized t-shirt you stumbled out of your room. As soon as your door opened Hemlock took off like a bullet to where you assumed your roommate had filled his food bowl. With your hair a mess and mismatched socks lazily pulled on you found your way to the living room which had been restored to its normal halfway presentable state. Your yawn stretched out for so long that your ribs hurt as you rubbed sleep out of your eyes. You looked around and saw Vincent already awake and wrapped up like a burrito in his blanket with an overfull plate of microwaved pizza rolls. The sofa was plush, and a homey olive green color complemented by his bright purple blanket that he was snuggled into so deeply that you would have to use a crowbar to pry him out it.

"Mornin'" You grumbled, mouth dry from sleep, not ready for full sentences yet. Slinking past him on your way to the kitchen.

"Why is food so good?" He asked, his eyes briefly leaving the tv screen to smile up at you before shoving more food in his face.

"Because science." You replied lazily, bones cracking pleasantly as you paused to stretch before continuing on your way.

Shuffling out of the room you went into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl when you remembered the dinner you had at Toriel's tonight. Gabriel had of course signed you up to bring cookies, you rolled your eyes at the memory. Oh well, you figured it gave you a chance to bake which you hardly ever did.

"You want to help me make cookies?" you asked immediately hearing the excited consent from the other room. 

You chuckled at his easy enthusiasm and poured your bowl full of Captain Crunch, smirking at the knowledge that your grocery list hasn't really changed much since college. Crossing the kitchen you opened the refrigerator the dim light bulb inside clicking on and bathing you in florescent light as you heard your friend moving around from behind you.

"Why is the fridge full of girl scout cookies and rum?" The fact that this kind of behavior is losing its ability to shock you probably meant something, but you decided not to open that can of worms today.

"I went shopping." he shrugged as if it was obvious as he stood in the doorway, having abandoned his blanket and carrying his now empty plate.

"I'm not even mad, when I get home from dinner wanna crack one of these open?" You asked grabbing the milk, having to Jenga it out of the fridge around the new items.

"Oh hell yes! Pick up soda for rum and cokes on the way back?"

You nodded as you poured the milk into your cereal and Vincent put his plate in the sink with a clatter. Soon he was about five feet of pure concentrated energy flitting around the kitchen setting it up for baking.

-

You didn't bake often, or cook really for that matter, but when you did you liked to do so from scratch and every time you left the counters gritty, dusted in a fine mixture of flour and sugar and when Vincent helped your kitchen went from messy to a disaster. He now sat on the one counter top by the sink you didn't bother to use holding a cookie in between his hands looking extremely proud of himself. You weren't sure if it was because of the state of the room, how the cookies turned out, or that he managed to arrange the cookies on a platter without eating them all. His legs dangled over the edge, nowhere near reaching the floor, making him look even shorter and younger than normal.

Now that you were done and it got closer to the time to go the reality of the situation was starting to dawn on you. You never really went to a dinner party and you were starting to feel like a high school student meeting a boyfriend's family for the first time. It wasn't like you experienced that a lot as a teenager but you still remember the nervous mess you became when trying to impress someone. Frowning down at your dirtied pajamas your nose scrunched up and you groaned starting to feel tendrils of panic rising.

"What do you even wear to a dinner like this?" You asked Vincent tugging at the hem of your shirt.

"Yes, ask the guy who has a panic attack when he has to order in a restaurant about what to do in social situations." He rolled his eyes at you wiping crumbs off his jeans.

"Well aren't you helpful?" 

"Just throw something somewhat decent together I guess. I don't know."

"And here I was planning on lingerie and a t shirt proclaiming my satanic intentions." You sarcastically intoned.

"Hot. Which I guess works out for you since it's so chilly out!" He couldn't keep the silly little smile he got when he told a bad joke off his face.

"Nope, nope if you're going to start with that I'm out. Imma go get dressed." You waved your arms at him in an overly exaggerated manner fleeing the room turning back and pointed an accusing finger at him. "And don't eat all the cookies while I'm gone."

"Oh come on, that would be a real CRUMBY thing to do!" He had started to giggle to himself.  

"Bad! Bad Vincent. No!" You scolded as you left, retreating to your room.

-

You fling open your closet door to find it mostly full of jeans and work shirts like you expected. You didn't think it was formal enough to wear any of the clothes you wear to work and your t shirts were too casual. You sighed and glared at the clothes as if it were their fault you were under prepared for this situation. Pushing through your clothes in search of something you wouldn't feel too awkward wearing you knew you had to have something stored away that would useful.

You jumped away from your closet nearly falling on your ass when a loud sound blared suddenly. Quickly you recognized the noise breaking the quiet as the Tardis landing sound from Doctor Who. For a moment you were very confused until you noticed the noise that was playing out of your a phone from the nightstand was your brother's ringtone. Taking a moment to be slightly disappointed that David Tennant wasn't here to take you away you answered your phone, propping it up in between your shoulder and ear as you went back to searching through your clothes.

"So are you still planning on coming or are you going to hide and try to will this away because I will pick your lock." Gabriel asked when you picked up your phone, not even bothering to say hello.

You rolled your eyes, you could hear his smirk over the phone. "You have a key."

"Yeah, but that is not nearly as fun." He sing-songed.

"So how is Morrigan handling the situation?" You asked quick to change the subject and hoping that he didn't actually latch on to the idea of trying to pick your lock.

"She has been throwing nearly her entire wardrobe around her room trying to pick out an outfit. And of course she doesn't want my help. I didn't even realize she owned so many dresses." Gabriel chuckled,  clearly amused by his daughter's antics.

"Yeah, who would of thought that you of all people would raise a messy kid." your toned dripped with sarcasm thinking back on how you two must have made your mom's life a nightmare when you were little.

"Hey, she's better than me when it comes to cleaning her room, it's starting to make me look bad."

"You don't need anyone's help to make you look bad." You retorted as you dug deeper in your closet unearthing one of the very few dresses you owned. It was a sweater dress that went down to just above your knees, it was warm, soft, and medium grey color. "Aha!" you called out triumphantly as you pulled it off the hanger.

"What are you 'aha'ing at? Finally beat that puzzle game you've been sucking at?" Gabriel asked teasingly.

You groaned suddenly remembering that hard puzzle you're stuck on in a game you're playing. "You dick, now that's going to bug me all night!"

You could hear him laughing loudly over the phone as you shut your closet causing you to glare harder as if he was there to see how annoyed you were at him. When Gabriel calmed down you shared a quick conversation about when he would pick you up and you hung up so you could get ready.

-

The sun hung low in the sky as you pulled up to Toriel's house in your brother's car. You had drove just outside the bustle of the city and parked in front of what looked like a cozy little suburban cottage with a couple cars already parked around it. 

"Nice place." Gabriel commented with an appreciative whistle as he helped Morrigan out of the car. 

"Seriously." You agreed but you couldn't feel jealous you loved your apartment and living in the middle of the busy city.

Your niece, so cute in her red dress, grabbed Gabe's hand trying her best to drag him along the walk way up to the door excitement glowing in her large eyes while you were sure your own betrayed your fraying nerves instead. Gabriel laughed lazily and indulgently walked with her to the front of the house leaving you to follow a few steps behind.

"Can I ring the bell?" Morrigan asked with thinly veiled enthusiasm giving Gabriel big, pleading puppy dog eyes as she played with the hem of her dress in nervous excitement.

"Sure thing honey." He smiled sweetly and easily picked her up so she could reach the door bell.

Morrigan giggled happily and reached out to press the button causing noise to erupt from inside the house.

You could hear heavy footsteps running through the house and a couple of muffled yells. Gabriel barely had enough time to pull Morrigan back, protectively drawing her flush against his chest, before the door swung open and a towering skeletal creature leaned halfway out of the doorway. He was shorter than Toriel but still taller than you or your brother, he stood easily over six foot tall. You had jumped back shocked at the sudden sight of the intimidating looking skull watching the three of you with rapt interest before trying to calm your rapidly beating heart. The monster didn't look threatening really, just eager and you scolded yourself internally for being scared.

You checked on your niece out of the corner of your eyes but she had quickly gone from covering her face with her small hands and squeaking in surprise from the sudden screaming to peeking out between her fingers and watching the man cautiously. Gabriel also looked a bit apprehensive but that was mostly more for his daughter's sake than his own.

"GREETINGS HUMANS AND TINY HUMAN! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" the skeleton boomed exuberantly striking a heroic and proud pose. You noticed Frisk a few steps behind him with a hand covering her mouth looking like she was giggling.

Toriel had quickly appeared at the door next to the skeleton with a small apologetic smile. "I see you've met Papyrus." she sighed slightly before smiling more genuinely.

"WHY OF COURSE THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS MAKES THE BEST FIRST IMPRESSION!"

Your niece seemed to get over the monster's loud voice and extended her hand from where she was still hoisted up by her father. "Hiya Mister I'm Morrigan!"

Papyrus took her hand in his much larger one and shook it in enthusiastic vigor. "Nice to meet you Tiny Human!" his voice still boisterous but no longer yelling.

The dark look drained from your brother's face as he heard Morrigan speaking confidently and happily, once again completely at ease nodding in greeting to Papyrus and Toriel.

You couldn't help but smile at his energy, it reminded you a lot of Vincent. You used to think it drained you coming from anyone else but you guessed you were making new exceptions tonight.

"Hey Toriel." you returned her smile before turning to the skeleton. "I'd shake your hand too but..." you let the sentence trail off instead choosing to raise the large cookie platter showing that your hands were otherwise occupied.

"OH! I see! No worries human! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, shall take that for you!" he posed again before taking the tray from your hands and sprinted back in to the house disappearing before you could argue the issue.

Toriel chuckled in a soft, motherly way as she watched the skeleton run past her. She stepped aside allowing the three of you room to enter her house. "Please come in."

Gabriel let Morrigan down, she was running as soon as she hit the ground. She speedily made her way into the house and over to Frisk showing off her dress already rambling on amenably to the nodding mute.

You stepped just inside the living room after your brother and closed the door behind your group. You smiled fondly finding Toriel and Gabe observing the children interact with matching tender expressions. Already calmed from your previous worrying as the the cozy family feeling washed over you. You could feel a stupidly happy smile tugging at the corners of your mouth and again for the second time in the past few days you were excited to make new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love feedback guys!


	4. Dinner, Dessert, and Drinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I promise Sans will actually be in the next chapter! I'm so sorry it feels like a long time to go without that important detail. But the next chapter will be extra long and up shortly!

Toriel guided you and your brother further inside while Frisk lead Morrigan out of the room, looking intent on showing her around the house. Gabriel and Toriel let them be as they entered the dining room with you following behind causing you to feel a bit like a lost puppy.

The kitchen door opened allowing a snippet of a loud conversation to spill out as a chubby, yellow monster backed out with a nervous stammer. She was shorter than the other two and looked kind of like a dinosaur except you'd never seen a timid, dress wearing dinosaur before.

She spun around only to jump with a scared squeak nearly knocking the glasses off her face. "I-i'm sorry... I d-didn't know y-you would be here s-so soon..." her apology trailed off as she wrung her hands together with her eyes trained on the floor.

"Alphys this is the young lady I was telling you about and her brother Gabriel." Toriel spoke calmly, ignoring the monster's stuttering outburst.

"Hey." Gabriel gave his normal lazy mock salute in casual greeting causing Alphys to look up slightly.

"Hi." you gave a placating smile "Sorry for startling you." 

You nudged gabriel in the ribs when he snorted at your overly kind tone, you probably sounding like you were trying to coax a scared dog out of a corner.

Soon your brother and Toriel took up chairs to continue their chat, sharing parenting stories from the sounds of it. Looking over to Alyphs you saw her staring down at her phone in a way that looked more like a social crutch than lack of interest in what was going on around her, so you thought it better to give her a moment to herself. You noticed the big open arch that connected the room to the living room and you immediately found yourself drawn to the large bookshelf by the fireplace as soon as you saw it.  
Seeing as everyone else seemed occupied you left them to their own devices and walked over to the bookcase eyes roaming over the titles of the worn, well-read books. You wondered how many facts one really even wanted to know about snails when you heard yelling over the already ruckus clanking coming from the kitchen.

"WOWIE UNDYNE! I DIDN'T KNOW WATER COULD EVEN CATCH FIRE LIKE THAT!"

"I uh... Well.. I MEAN OF COURSE PUNK! But.. Maybe we should cover that pot?" The equally exuberant voice of who you could only guess was Undyne responded with unshakeable confidence that wilted slightly around the edges.

"Yeah, you should really put a lid on it." you mumble to yourself before even thinking about it. Groaning when you heard what you said and silently cursing Vincent for rubbing off on you.

Alphys glanced nervously at the door before looking over to Toriel "Y-you did c-cook before they t-took over the kitchen r-right?" she asked in a hushed voice.

Toriel nodded knowingly, small smirk playing on her snout. Alphys let out a relieved breath but quickly looked worried again. "D-don't tell her I asked p-please?"

You shot your brother a concerned look, dinner was starting to sound like a scary experience between the fire and lack of confidence in those in the kitchen. He merely shrugged seemingly unaffected by the possibility. Toriel was, thankfully, unaware of your silent conversation as she was once again placating a panicky Alphys. The kitchen door burst open as if it was kicked with great force. It flung open so hard you thought it nearly flew off of its hinges. You instinctively stumbled a few steps back, away from the violent action nearly feeling the need to take cover.

The door aggressor turned out to be a a tall smirking monster, her teeth were sharp, more like a mouthful of fangs. She had miraculous cyan scales and some sort of fins or gills for ears poking out from her vibrant red hair pulled back in a tight pony tail. She was equal parts beautiful and terrifying as she strode into the room with Papyrus following adoringly at her heels.

From where you stood you saw her lock eyes with your brother and her smirk morphed into a dangerous snarl.

"Hey nerd!" she growled pointing rather dramatically.

"U-un-Undyne?" Alphys stuttered worriedly.

"Oh hey what are the odds of seeing you here, how'd those tats heal up?" Gabriel asked easily, apparently unconcerned by her demeanor.

As quickly as she grew fierce it melted into an enthusiastic smile. "Hell yeah nerd check it out!" she slung off her light jacket tossing it towards Alphys revealing her black tank top underneath and sprinting across the room presenting an arm to him.

Toriel shot a quick warning glare at Undyne for her language while Alphys scrambled with the coat and Papyrus looked both confused and excited. You wandered over to the group curious, Papyrus apparently had the same idea peeking at the scene from over your head. Stark black tribal tattoos stood out clearly against Undyne's blue flesh and wrapped around her upper arm spanning from her shoulder to her elbow.

"Wow, you did this Gabe?" you gasped at your brother's work, it seemed to match Undyne perfectly, from what little you knew of her, both badass and startlingly beautiful.

"Yeah, she's a real trooper, hardly winced at all under the needle." he praised with a shrug releasing her arm.

"WHATEVER! YOU COULDN'T HURT ME IF YOU TRIED!" Undyne boasted loudly her toothy smirk stretching across her face.

Before anything else could be said Morrigan and Frisk entered the room, again hand in hand. Frisk dropped your niece's hand and tugged on Toriel's dress. When the goat mom looked up Frisk signed, and rubbed her stomach for emphasis.

"Oh yes, of course my child, dinner is just about ready. Do you want to help me set the table?"  
-

Dinner consisted of the most delicious roast and sides you had ever seen made by Toriel and some over cooked spaghetti contributed by Papyrus and Undyne. You politely put a little from each on your plate trying your best not to just shovel the food in like you were starved. It was really easy to get lost in just listening to the group talk, you could feel the history they had together and how close they were. It quickly became clear that as motherly and regal Toriel first appeared she was kind of a dork, in the best kind of way. She was quick with silly puns and gushed easily about her students. Undyne sat close to Alphys and protectively slung an arm around her shoulders. Gabriel was fighting a losing battle trying to keep Morrigan from making a mess as she and Frisk refused to stop playing and talking through the meal. Papyrus completely ignored most of the other food and piled his plate full of his own spaghetti and watched you hopefully as you tried it. It wasn't the best you ever had, but it was edible so you gave him a thumbs up, causing him to to beam in pride. 

"So you take care of the rugrat by yourself?" Undyne asked pointing her fork at Gabriel.

You stiffened, gripping your own utensils so tightly your knuckles went white. You looked over to your brother and saw a similar dark flash across his face betraying his normal playful personality. You hated this conversation but you hated her even more. 

The room went silent, all eyes on you and Gabe in various states of curiosity and concern. Morrigan even got quiet, her head tilted to the side like a confused puppy, she barely even knew the story.

"Yeah, it's just me and my little Morri." he ruffled his daughter's hair and smiled but it was strained. "But of course, my baby sister is always around to help."

"Of course what would you do without me?" you forced as much cheer into the statement as you could but you were still fuming. You always got angry when that bitch was mentioned.

The tension stuck in the air but everyone seemed to accept it was a touchy subject and not push the issue further.

"Indeed! It is always a pleasure to see a sibling nearly as great as THE GREAT PAPYRUS! My lazybones brother would be lost without me as well!" Papyrus vowed dramatically posing the best he could while sitting down.

"Oh, you have a brother?" you asked, now very curious. Why wasn't he here, did he have something against humans? You honestly wouldn't blame him, in the city things weren't as bad but you felt like you couldn't turn on the news without hearing some anti-monster rant or a stomach turning report of protest and violence.

"Oh yes! He is actually working for a change. Though he is probably slacking off!" Papyrus scolded in a way that was clearly brotherly.

The tension in the room nearly evaporated at the new conversation and soon your tray of cookies were brought out, much to the kids' and Papyrus's delight.

You got a lot of compliments on your baking that you shrugged off with a slight blush insisting that it really wasn't that hard to do and their cooking was much better. The tray rapidly emptied and Toriel took it upon herself to make some hot chocolate to accompany the simple dessert.

"THIS COOKIE PLATTER DEMANDS RECOGNITION!" Papyrus accused pointing with one gloved hand, half eaten cookie in the other.

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion at his words. "What?" you asked leaning over the table to look where he was pointing.

You found a post-it-note stuck to the tray that was previously hidden underneath the cookies. You pried it off and read the scrawled message 'I helped!'. You sighed, so that's why Vincent was so pleased with himself earlier. 

"Yeah, sorry... That's from my roommate. I guess he didn't want me taking all the credit." you explained sure an embarrassed blush was staining your cheeks. "Actually, I think you would really like him Papyrus." you added as an afterthought.

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS VERY LIKEABLE! I have many friends and would most likely amaze a new human friend!" he straightened to his full height glowing in pride though right after his expression switched to a cautious and eager one. He looked like he was waiting for validation.

"Actually if want you can give me your number and we'll all hang out sometime." you offered. You actually felt excited rather than drained by the prospect of hanging out with the group again.

As soon as you breached the subject you and Gabriel found yourselves trading numbers with them all.

-

By the end of the night everything wound down, Morrigan was asleep against Gabriel's shoulder. He held her as he and Toriel planned out a playdate. You ended up standing near the door with Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys talking about hanging out later.

"We c-could wa-watch anime and o-order pizza or s-something." Alphys suggested meekly.

"Yeah! Or we could go to Grillby"s, he got his bar reopened aboveground!" Undyne interjected. 

"The food there is so greasy! And they don't serve spaghetti!" Papyrus whined.

You chuckled at his response, "Vincent would actually love having somebody to watch anime with. I mean, I have a hard time getting into it but I'm sure it'll be fun."

Alphys looked extremely happy at the prospect of having an anime binge session. "Oh my god well maybe you just haven't found the right series! I can bring Mew Mew Kissy Cutie you'll really love it! It has such strong themes of friendship and is still probably my favorite even though the sequel was the absolute worst! I mea-"

Wow you didn't know she had that in her. It was the first time you heard her speak so confidently and without stuttering at all. 

"Hun, deep breaths." Undyne interrupted her with a kiss to the cheek and an amused tone.

"S-sorry." 

"Nah, don't worry about it." you dismissed her apology smiling at the tender action.

"C'mon or I'll leave you here." Gabriel teased from the doorway.

"I guess that's my cue to leave, I'll text you guys for sure." you assured them waving goodbye.

-

"Hey loser I got soda!" you called out toeing off your shoes as soon as you got home. 

Hemlock lazily looked up from where he was napping on the couch and meowed at you in greeting before putting his head back down to sleep. 

"You're the loser." came Vincent's childish retort from his room through the propped open door.

You snorted and went into the kitchen to get the rum. Vincent soon joined you pulling two glasses down from the cabinets.

"So how was it?" he asked.

"Surprisingly fun. Thanks for the note by the way." you rolled your eyes at him as you began to pour. He laughed mischievously at that. 

Your phone beeped alerting you to that fact you got a text. Pulling it out you checked your messages pulling up the new one from Papyrus 'HUMAN I HOPE YOU MADE IT HOME WITH GREAT EASE! FROM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!' you smiled at the cute message and showed it to Vincent before sending a quick reply.

"Wow." Vincent remarked now sipping on his drink, immediately making a face at the taste. "Does he actually talk like that?"

"Yeah, he's a total sweetheart too." you answered taking a swig of your own drink having a much easier time with it than your lightweight friend. "Oh, and he's a skeleton." you shrugged as if it was totally normal.

Vincent looked up with wide curious eyes now far more interested. "Really? That's so cool! Do I get to meet your new friends?"

"Totally dude." you answered enthusiastically.

You told him all about Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, and Toriel as you drank and watched campy old scifi movies taking breaks to make fun of the hokey acting or horrible effects.

-

A few drinks in and you were raving about the monsters you've met Vincent listened sleepily, leaning against you with his head resting on your shoulder. 

"Mmmmhmmm." he nodded when you mentioned having them over again. You probably already brought it up several times already in your haze.

"Imma text 'em." you slurred the sudden idea patting around for your phone.

"Later." he muttered through a yawn curling into a tighter ball on the couch.

You rolled your eyes, you were fine to text. Weren't you? Oh well, you were going to. You had made up your mind by the time you found your phone. You opened up your messaging with only a little difficultly and clicked on Papyrus' number.

'Paprus les hang out!!! We can make spagetti or somthing!' you typed out with your address attached before following Vincent's lead and drifting off.


	5. Hot Bartenders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So like promised this chapter is longer! And Sans does indeed make his appearance!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh and quick warning cussing and slight monster racism in this bit. Nothing too bad.

You awoke with a start to the sound of thunderous knocking from the door. Vincent flailed wildly as he fell from the couch to the floor with a thud and Hemlock yowled from somewhere in the house. Still sluggish and disoriented you were thankful for your lack of hangover because that noise would be killing you right now. Vincent's groan reinforced that idea as he covered his ears not moving from his spot on the floor.

"Who the hell could that be?" you croaked your mouth dry and throat sore.

"Don' care neighbors." Vincent answered in a hoarse whisper reminding you that your neighbors wouldn't be too happy if it continued.

Vincent whined pathetically trying to cover his ears and shield his eyes from the light as you went to stand up. You nearly fell backwards as you stumbled on your weak, numb legs.

"Coming!" you called out in hopes of stopping the incessant knocking.

It didn't really work, though there was a small pause before the loud rapping at the door picked back up. You moved to the door as quick as you could manage with your sluggish limbs protesting all the way. Ripping the door open as soon as you reached it you were almost hit with a red gloved hand that was still attempting its path.

"GOOD MORNING HUMAN!" the familiar booming voice greeted. "I RECEIVED YOUR REQUEST FOR QUALITY TIME WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS! Even though your spelling needs some work. AND CAME BRIGHT AND EARLY TO SHARE THE BEAUTIFUL EXPERIENCE OF BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI!"

A neighbor pounded on a shared wall and you heard the muffled "Shut the fuck up!"

"Please no more yelling." Vincent whined.

You were suddenly very aware of your messy hair and rumpled clothing, what a mess you must be. "I as-" you cleared your painfully dry throat and tried again. "I asked you to come over?"

"OH Y-" he started at the same volume as before. You put a finger to his teeth and shushed him gently.

"Too early, quiet time." you chided softly not removing your finger until he nodded in understanding.

"Yes you sent me a message last night." He continued his thought at a much more manageable volume.

You now vaguely remembered your drunk text and groaned. "Yeah sorry about that it, must of been really late." you stepped to the side to let him into your apartment.

He was carrying with him an armful of grocery bags that you took from him and walked him over to the couch. "Make yourself at home, give me a minute I just woke up." you gestured to your obvious sleep rumbled appearance. "Oh and that's my roommate Vincent." you added grabbing your phone from the coffee table.

You went into the kitchen to drop off the bags and fixed a cup of water taking a sip to soothe your throat before grabbing pain killers for Vincent. You brought them both to to your whimpering heap of roommate before retreating to your room to change.

You looked wistfully toward the shower but you didn't have time for that right now so you changed as quickly as you could. You grabbed the first clean black t-shirt you found and some simple jeans changing into them and zipping a jacket up over your thrown on clothes. You did what you could to tame your matted bed head before just tying it back into its usual loose ponytail and brushed your teeth quickly.

You came back into the living room, which was dimmer than it was before probably to appease Vincent's hangover. You saw he was doing a bit better because he was holding your small black cat up to the skeleton and talking to him softly, but happily. As you got closer you could hear the conversation.

"This, O Great Papyrus, is Sir Hemsworth. He nearly died valiantly to obtain this title so he urges you to refer to him as such."

Papyrus looked enthralled by this and whatever fantasy story your roommate was weaving about your rescue kitten. It made you want to flip on all the lights just to spite him.

"His name is Hemlock." you intoned. You knew you were fighting a losing battle over your cat's name, and it wasn't going to get any better if he brings Papyrus over to his side.

Papyrus seemed to pout without lips and give you sad puppy eyes without eyes so you relented with a long suffering sigh.

"You can call him Sir Hemsworth if you want." you told Papyrus and saw his expression immediately lift.

Vincent looked at you smugly as if he won. You glared at him and when you were sure your guest wasn't looking you mouthed 'cheater' at him. He stuck his tongue out at you and quickly turned back to where Papyrus was reverently petting Hemlock who was lapping up to the attention like the lazy, spoiled cat he was.

"It is very nice to meet you Sir Hemsworth, as I am sure you are exceedingly delighted to meet me."

You took the peaceful moment as a chance to check your phone finding several enthusiastic texts from Papyrus responding to your cringe worthy drunk text. There was also one from Alphys asking what anime shows you've seen so she could start planning what to bring to your inevitable viewing party and one from Toriel telling you that she had fun at dinner and hoped to see you again soon.

You were responding to the texts when you looked up sensing the serene moment wouldn't last much longer. Papyrus quickly grew impatient and started to fidget. "Are you ready for my famous breakfast spaghetti?" he looked almost timid and hopeful making you feel a little bad for being so blunt with him earlier. You had to to keep the peace in your apartment building, but you would still make it up to him.

"Yep, I'm ready when you are." you smiled already getting more excited now that you were fully awake.

He instantly bounced back with newfound energy practically dragging you into your small kitchen. You just let him, giggling all the way.

-

Cooking with Papyrus was actually a lot more fun than you thought it would be. With him at your side and Vincent sitting on the counter commenting over the enthusiastic, verging on violent, way of cooking you almost felt like a kid learning to cook again. To be fair, the food was probably inedible, but it didn't matter much to you as you and Papyrus flitted around in a blur of activity. Now that he seemed more in his element Papyrus's volume slowly but surely crept back up to familiar levels but you barely even noticed through your own boisterous laughter.

"YOU ARE VERY LUCKY TO HAVE FOUND A FRIEND LIKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO TEACH YOU HOW TO MASTERFULLY CRAFT SPAGHETTI. MAYBE SOON YOU SHALL BE AS GOOD OF A CHEF AS ME, well maybe not as good as me, BUT VERY CLOSE."

"You think we're friends?" your smile at that bordered on giddy.

"WELL OF COURSE WE'RE FRIENDS! YOU INVITED ME OVER AND WE BONDED OVER MY CLEARLY AMAZING COOKING SKILL." he paused as if to study your facial expressions. "AND WE SHARED GENUINE COMPLIMENTS!" he emphasised that statement almost sounding amazed by it.

You couldn't help but launch at him excitedly with a hug wrapping your arms around his lanky skeletal form. "Good! I'm glad we're friends."

Papyrus stiffened as if he didn't know what to do with your sudden attack of affection but soon relaxed into your grip and patted the top of your head like one would do to a child. You could hear Vincent snort in laughter from his perch but you ignored him slowly disentangling from the embrace.

You started mockingly bickering at Vincent for ruining the moment when the sound of a phone ringing tore through the kitchen. You instinctively reached towards your pocket before you saw Papyrus retrieving his own phone. He smiled apologetically and answered holding the phone up to his skull where a human's ear would be.

The conversation was a quick shouting match, Papyrus talking widely with his hands even though the person on the other end couldn't see him. It seemed happy enough so you gave him his space, moving closer to Vincent trying to politely give him enough space to at least pretend like the conversation was private.

"I HAVE TRAINING WITH UNDYNE!" He announced gleefully pocketing his phone.

"Training?" you questioned curiously.

Instead of answering you were lifted from the ground and swung in a crushing hug. "I MUST LEAVE BUT I WILL SEE YOU LATER HUMAN!"

"Can't breathe." you choked out.

He dropped you instantly and you crumpled to the ground. He scratched the back of his skull sheepishly. "MY APOLOGIES." his cheekbones glowed faintly with orange.

"'S fine, just warn a girl next time." you shrugged as you pulled yourself off of the floor. "I'll text you later, go have fun."

With that Papyrus left the apartment in a whirlwind of excitement to get to his training, whatever that entailed, leaving your kitchen a mess with mass horribly overcooked, crunchy spaghetti on your counter. You and Vincent just stared at the ruined dish for a long time before you heard the rumbling of his stomach and yours responded similarly.

"Wanna go out to eat?" he asked simply.

"Yeah, I heard them mention this monster joint last night, let's check it out." you responded already looking up Grillby's on your phone.

-

The taxi ride felt like it was taking forever and the backseat felt like a yellow, metal prison. You were gritting your teeth, nearing the brink of shit you would put up with from the driver. Vincent's entire focus was funneled into staring at his phone so hard you worried it would burst into flame due to sheer determination to ignore the man's words.

"I mean seriously they should all just go back into the damn hole they came from." The taxi driver added to the lengthy rant he was on about monsters. It was disgusting, you didn't even know there were that many racist slurs people had come up with for the peaceful race.

You checked the map on your phone again praying to whoever wanted to listen that you got there soon, it would really suck to go to jail on an empty stomach. Whatever cruel force that was currently screwing with you must have grown bored because you saw you were approaching the restaurant. 

"Just drop us off up here on the corner." you directed coldly.

Vincent let out a long breath beside you, some tension easing off of his features. You however were still stressed and upset that you had to stay in the rude man's presence for even another second.

The driver had the nerve to scoff as you pulled in front of the quite honestly beautiful, rustic looking diner. "Fucking monsters think they can own their own businesses. I'd rather that be an empty fucking lot." he laughed to himself only causing you to grimace further. "Careful as you pass by ma'am who knows what those freaks get up to."

Vincent reached out to you as if in attempt to quell your rising rage at humanity. It didn't help and he couldn't blame you, he did however scurry quickly out of the car without a word. 

You angrily tossed the wadded up money in his direction "Would you shut the hell up, no one wants to hear your ignorant backward beliefs on their way to lunch." You hissed out in an eerily calm rage flinging the door open so harshly it bounced on its hinges back to you.

"Your not really going in there are you?" his face morphed from utter confusion to contempt as he snarled, "Monster loving bitch."

You stepped outside the car but leaned back in to get the final word "Better there than another second in your wretched hellhole of a taxi." With that you slammed the car door.

The taxi peeled away from the curb and you flipped it off as it went. As soon at the yellow blob was fully out of sight you drooped sighing wearily. You noticed a few people and monsters were observing you curiously but you shrugged it off shoving your hands into your jacket pockets. Vincent retook his place at your side as you calmed yourself watching the flicker of light and movement from the building's large bay style window that took up nearly the entire front wall. 

Vincent shifted awkwardly from foot to foot before taking in an exaggerated breath of air "Man it's good to be able to breathe again! That guy's attitude wasn't the only thing that stunk in there! Whoo whee!" he laughed nervously at his own joke.

You glared half heartily but it quickly became a smile. "Let's go dork I am starving." you let out a small laugh as you bumped his shoulder with yours. The tension in the air quickly evaporated as you fell back into friendly conversation. 

-

Upon entering the diner, a bell over the door rang and all sorts of different monsters looked up at you and Vincent for a long moment. Most regarded you with curious expressions but some looked wary to see you. Though soon they returned to their activities, a wide variety of monsters all so different from each other ate and drank, played cards, and chatted happily together.  A small group of humans sat on their own in one small boothe tucked away in a corner curiously trying to study the monsters without looking at them for too long. The first thing you noticed was the smell, the aroma that clung thickly in the air was like a mixture of a wood burning stove, burgers, and something sweet you couldn't put a name to. It was mouth watering and your stomach growled violently at the scent. The second thing you noticed was the warmth of the place, glancing around you figure that was probably due to the large number of people inside. Hunger mostly in control now you pulled Vincent past the more crowded central area crammed with tables and booths and moved instead towards the bar along the back wall that looked like it was straight out of a movie.

As you took your seat at the bar and glanced around in search of a waiter or bartender you soon figured out why the place was actually this toasty in the bitter autumn weather. You leaned over to tell Vincent but his eyes were already locked on the heat source.

Fire, not like in a panic the place is on fire kind of way, but a thin, stately man who appeared to be entirely fire. The flames around him crackled and danced in an entrancing way that reminded you of watching the fireplace during the winter as a kid. He was really overdressed for the venue with his neatly pressed black pants and matching vest looking out of place in a bar this casual and cozy. He turned toward you and nodded in acknowledgment. It completely fascinated you the way he didn't have any clear facial features but a pair of neat rectangular framed glasses sat on his face marking where he should have eyes.

"That's so cool." Vincent whispered breathlessly eyes never leaving the fire elemental.

"Oh course you think so you freaking pyro." you rolled your eyes but you agreed he was very intriguing, and also kind of confusing. You once again had to silently remind yourself that magic was real even though it still felt very odd to think since you never used to believe in that sort of thing. If a bartender literally made of fire didn't drive the fact permanently into your brain nothing else probably ever would.

He gracefully made his way over to the two of you and dropped off a very short menu before moving over to a monster that had called out for him somehow giving you an apologetic look. Vincent pulled his leather jacket to himself in what you knew was a shy gesture rather than him being cold. He often curled up on himself when his social anxiety was starting up.

You nudged him encouragingly, "C'mon dude." you stage whispered to him in a playful manner.

You thought it was his crowded restaurant issue and talking to new people even though he genuinely seemed more comfortable around monsters than people. He gave you that pleading stare the one with those big round puppy eyes that only he could pull off that innocently. Once he was sure he had your attention his eyes quickly darted back to the fire elemental pointedly.

"Ooooh." The realization dawned on you suddenly and you saw the blush creep up his face. He couldn't speak up because he thought the bartender was cute. He gave you a weak nod in confirmation and you smiled comfortingly at him. "You can do it man. Go for it." you urged him on eagerly with a light punch to his arm.

He shot you a glare but there was no malice behind it and you returned it with a stern expression. He groaned and swiveled back to face the bar in his stool. The man made of fire returned appearing very patient though you seriously weren't sure if he was making these expressions or if you were imagining them since his few facial features seemed hard to read though you still felt as though you got the gist of what they meant.

 Vincent took a moment gathering all of his courage and offered the bartender a shy smile. "S-so uh... Has anyone ever told you that you look really hot?" Vincent finished smiling a little brighter, proud of his pun pickup line.

You groaned barely resisting the urge to hide your face in your hands for what was surely going to be second hand embarrassment. You braced yourself for the awkward silence but it never came. Instead you heard a deep chuckle rumble behind you.

"yeah, i'm pretty sure i have."

You jumped and Vincent nearly fell off his seat, his face entirely red. You both turned to face the speaker finding a short skeleton looking at the two of you with an amused smile. He was probably about the same height as Vincent and had his hands stuffed into his baggy blue hoodie, his pose exuding casual ease. Your friend's face was growing so dark with his blush it was kind of worrying. He laid his head against the bar defeated with a pathetic whimper. Attention drawn back up to the bartender when you heard his breathy laughter that reminded you of the sound of logs crackling in a fireplace. Vincent's head shot back up and looked at him in awe, if he was a cartoon character he would've had gleaming stars in his eyes.

"Play nice Sans, or you might have to start paying for your food." it was the first you heard the fire elemental speak and the only word that came to mind to describe it was... smokey.

"you know me grillbz i don't have a bone to pick with anybody." Sans said with a shrug as he pulled himself up on a nearby bar stool.

Sans... why was that name so familiar to you? You heard it recently right? Then it clicked and you felt stupid seeing as he was the only other skeleton you've ever meet. "Wait! Sans? Like Papyrus' brother?" you asked turning slightly to face the ever smiling skeleton. The heat Grillby gave off like a furnace started to get to you so you shucked off your jacket.

He chuckled, it was a lazy but really pleasing sound as he turned to face you. "who's askin-" his retort cut off as he made a strange choking noise.

Your brow scrunched up in confusion and you followed the line of sight from his bright white pinpricks of lights that served as pupils down to your now visible t-shirt. When you caught sight of the design of the random shirt you threw on this morning you couldn't help but laugh even as you felt your cheeks glow with a heated blush.

Standing out starkly from the black fabric was the design of two white, skeletal hands that wrapped around the shirt and settled over your breasts. 


	6. Everybody Needs Comfort Food Sometimes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grillby makes the best burgers.

The atmosphere of the bar was warm and inviting with the soft lights flickering dimly like candles, casting slowly swaying shadows across the dark wood panelling of the walls. All around the ambient chatter and laughter reverberated happily through the large cluttered building and filled the space with life. Despite all the joyous noises and uplifting mood you and the skeleton sitting beside you had fallen into a slightly uneasy staring contest after your nervous laughter petered out.

You couldn't be sure how much time had passed like this since you took your jacket off making the meeting tense and you definitely didn't know what to say in this situation so you let the awkwardness hang thickly between you. Unable to stop staring at him in nervous shock you thought you saw his cheekbones turn a faint blue color, but it was gone so quickly you weren't sure if it was a trick of lighting or if you had imagined it. He was the first to break the silence causing you to let out a breath you didn't even realise you were holding.

"gotta hand it to ya kid, that's a pretty cool shirt." his smile stretched into an amused smirk as he gestured nonchalantly at the design of your t-shirt. 

"I didn't even realize I was wearing it I'm so sor- Wait... Was that a pun?" you asked disbelievingly, glaring at him as he began to laugh at your reaction.

"nothin' gets past you huh?" Sans shrugged settling into a far more relaxed position.

You opened your mouth as if to speak but nothing came out so you closed it again frowning slightly. You stared at him trying to process what was happening. Was he making fun of you? Luckily you were saved from overthinking the issue by an urgent nudge from Vincent and you quickly turned back to face him.

"Dude, I'm starving." he whined pushing the menu into your hands willing you to order quickly before Grillby moved away to help another customer again.

You briefly scanned the options on the, admittedly limited, menu wondering silently at some of the stranger items that caught your eye but you knew as soon as you saw a description that made your stomach growl again what you wanted.

"The burger for me." you smiled up at Grillby handing your menu back over to the bartender before glancing back to your friend who was nodding in passionate agreement. You waited for a moment but he seemed unable to do anything other than watch Grillby in love sick awe so you spoke up for him, "Make that two burgers." taking the menu from his hands offering it up as well.

Grillby nodded taking the menus from you and wandered off into the back room that must have held the kitchen. 

Vincent watched the bartender as he left and you rolled your eyes "Can I take you anywhere without you crushing on some guy?"

Vincent sputtered turning back to you slapping your arm, his face turning red. "I don't crush on guys everywhere! And I mean..." he paused his blush darkened. "HE'S MADE OF FIRE WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?"

You laughed at his flustered speech "Of course that's where your mind goes you fucking pyro." 

He crossed his arms in a huff "It's… it's not just that." he muttered defensively pulling his jacket close to himself again as if trying to hide in it to get away from the conversation.

Taking pity you relented from picking on your friend and instead curiously glanced around the bar, wishing you had your camera with you. When  you caught sight of the skeleton sitting next to you it caused you to groan, mentally berating yourself for how you fucked up talking to him earlier. You tried to come up with something to say to end the silence without sounding like an idiot or a jerk. He was your friend's brother so you didn't really want him to hate you, of course that was more for Papyrus's sake than your own. You really didn't care what most people thought of you but this felt different.

Your eyes grew wide when you suddenly remembered that you had worn this shirt when Papyrus was over earlier and instantly you were very glad that it was cold enough for jackets.

"Papyrus didn't see this shirt." You blurted out in a matter of fact manner not looking at anyone in particular, rather staring at the bottles lining the shelves at the back of the bar as if they had suddenly become incredibly interesting.

Instantly you knew that sounded ridiculous and you hoped it didn't come out as loud as you thought it did. Though you were pretty sure he heard you because he choked on his drink, his  skeletal hand shooting up to cover his mouth but doing little to help the liquid from spraying out and dribbling down his chin.

"what?" he asked voice rough, he cleared his throat, coughing slightly. His attention was now locked on you again.

"I just realised I was wearing this shirt when I saw him earlier... And that just feels... Weird." you mumbled picking at the hem of your shirt, it was a nervous habit, your eyes darting from the bar to him finding it hard to keep contact with those bright lights in his sockets that were trained on you.

"so you're the new human tori was talking about huh?" he asked, head tilting to the side a bit and his eyes still never wavering. He watched you as if he was searching your face for something.

"Yeah, I suppose so." you smiled weakly. "I'm making a really bad first impression aren't I?" you grimaced, remembering how dumb you sounded when you first met Toriel as well.

"God, which one of us is worse at meeting new people?" Vincent laughed having been eagerly eavesdropping.

You let out a startled laugh at Vincent's interjection but before you could reply Grillby had come back from the kitchen with a plate in either hand. The smell alone made your mouth water as he placed them in front of you and Vincent and you couldn't help but stare lovingly at the large, juicy burger. Vincent let out a slightly pornographic moan next to you as he took a large bite and nodded emphatically at the bartender. Eager to dig into your own you scanned the bar in search of ketchup.

You pouted, not finding any you considered flagging Grillby back down to ask for some when something firm was tapped against the back of your hand. Looking up you saw Sans, he had apparently figured out what you were looking for and was holding out the glass bottle to you having pressed it against your hand to get your attention. You looked at him, not sure of what to say, he just shrugged at your silence and placed the ketchup next to you.

"no need to bottle things up, plus you might need this to ketchup with your friend." he gestured to Vincent who has already eaten about half of his own burger.

You rolled your eyes at his puns but still smiled and nodded in thanks. Taking the bottle from the counter you lifted up the top bun of your burger and tilted the ketchup over it only to have a river of red spill from it and messily coat your plate.

You could hear Sans laugh from beside you. You frowned down at your plate, had he done that somehow? 

"sorry i'll get you a new..." he started confirming your suspicions but then you shrugged once more simply replacing the top bun and took a bite. You ate things covered in ketchup anyway. 

Vincent grimaced looking up from his own plate. "Ugh... Why do you always do that? That's disgusting."

"Don't hate, ketchup is good." you told him for the millionth time. "Like I'm going to take food advice from someone who puts glitter in his food anyway."

Vincent slammed his burger down on the plate looking almost offended at your comment. "It's not my fault! I thought it was the edible kind!"

You laughed and shook your head at him. "Yeah, yeah you always have an excuse."

Sans chuckled again catching your attention and once he noticed he had it he smiled wider "my condiments to the fellow ketchup lover" he winked and brought the half empty glass bottle to his teeth downing the rest of it like it was nothing.

You smirked at him, more comfortable talking to him now. He looked slightly disappointed at your lack of response to his choice of drink as if he was hoping to make you squeamish. "Well at least we have that in common. Maybe we'll find some other things to agree on eventually."

He shrugged, the blue of his jacket bunching up around his skull "if you plan on sticking around that long maybe."

You were going to ask him what he meant by that but your phone rang out in its whirring Dr. Who tone alerting you to your brother's call. Your eyebrows scrunched together wondering what he could be calling about. "Sorry, I have to take that." you apologised to Sans fishing your phone from your pocket.

"Hey Gabe, what's up?" you answered your phone with a smile, covering your other ear to hear better in the loud bar.

"Morrigan's been asking about her mom again." came his voice, it sounded quieter and sadder than you've heard it in a long time. 

The smile quickly slid from your face. "I'll be right there."

He mumbled something that was probably meant to be a goodbye before you hung up. "I'm sorry I have to go, it was nice meeting you." you nodded distractedly to Sans pulling out your wallet.

"What's wrong?" Vincent half whispered worriedly.

Pulling out some money for your meal you passed it to Vincent. "Gabriel needs me." you shook your head hoping he wouldn't ask more questions because you were trying to keep yourself calm and polite. 

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk with you?" he asked hesitantly. You answered with a simple glare and he sighed backing down. "Alright then... I'll see you later."

"Later." you agreed hating the way your voice sounded cold and stern. You leapt down off of your bar stool sparing Vincent and Sans one last strained smile as you pulled your jacket back on. You fled without another thought.

-

You knocked loudly on the door to your brother's apartment, bracing yourself for the state you were sure he would be in. Yet when he opened the door and you saw his face, so broken and sully your heart shattered again. It wasn't right for his face to hold a frown, not a real one. Before you even crossed the threshold into his house you smothered him with a hug trying to convey all the love and sympathy you could with the simple gesture. He returned the embrace clinging to you but he remained silent. 

"Where is she?" you asked pulling back studying his face to gauge how bad off he was.

"Pouting in her room." Gabriel finally spoke as he stepped aside to let you in.

 

"She'll get over it, the little beast loves you more than anything." you comforted. The last time Morrigan had asked about her mom she had just started going to school and learned it wasn't too normal to only have one parent, you suppose with it being brought up again last night her curiosity returned.

He grumbled in something that sounded like agreement before slumping down on his couch in a defeated pile.

"Well what did you tell her?" you asked voice still soft.

"What I always have, she doesn't have a mother, she never had one." he exhaled waving his hand aimlessly.

"You'll have to tell her the story one day, or better yet you'll let me I'd tell her the truth with out any sympathy toward the bitch." you sat next to Gabriel keeping your voice low enough for your niece not to hear you cussing from the other room.

"I'll tell her when she's older, when she'll understand." he sighed thumbing the scar he bore on his left forearm in an absent-minded way.

You sighed. "You need to get some sleep Gabe." he grumbled again as you pet his hair that was more a wild mess than usual. "Do you want me to take Morri after school tomorrow?" 

Gabriel nodded weakly, eyes tired "Mhmm."

"Go to sleep Gabe, I'll talk to her." you gently pushed him urging him to go lay down in his own room.

He groaned but sluggishly made his way off the couch. "Don't te-"

"I'm not going to tell her anything until you think she's ready." you agreed easily knowing what he was asking for.

He nodded slinking off for rest. You watched him go with a heavy sigh and buried your head in your hands. Sometimes you thought it wasn't fair that you had to be the strong protective one for your older brother but at the same time you knew you wouldn't give your brother up for anything.

"Why does he get so sad when I ask about my mom?" you looked up upon hearing a small curious voice to see Morrigan looking smaller and stiller than usual.

"Cause it's not a happy story sweetheart. He'll tell you when he's ready." you forced a smile for her. "Wanna watch a movie while your dad gets some rest?"

Morrigan seemed to consider your words and grow happier at them. She nodded and ran over to the couch practically throwing herself in your lap.

"Omph! You're getting to big for that." you mock scolded her as she giggled.

You flicked their tv on and opened up netflix for her, handing her the remote. "You hungry sweetheart?" you asked as you kissed her temple.

She hummed as she thought looking through her movie choices. "Uh huh." 

"Mac and cheese then?" you moved her from your lap to settle on the couch by herself.

"Yeah!" she agreed happily nodded without looking up from the screen.

You smiled and made your way into your brother's small kitchen, if only he could be so easily distracted by colorful cartoons and comfort food.


	7. Cheesy Puns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I am so sorry this took so long but moving, internet, stress, blah blah blah you get it right? I made it a little longer than normal so that should help right? I'm sorry...

With one hand buried deep in your jacket pocket and the other wrapped around the heat of a paper coffee cup, clutching it close to you like it was your only life line, you made your way to work. You sloshed down the sidewalk that lead to the mall through the gentle autumn rain as if the path was second nature. The sun had just started to rise but it was still dark with small glimmering rays of light peaking through heavy clouds and the tall city buildings. Cars were becoming more plentiful on the streets spraying water from their tires as they sped by also on their way to work with the growing traffic. The few people you shared your sidewalk route with bustled by mostly with their heads down and covered to avoid the downpour and absorbed in their own thoughts. The normal urban sounds were slightly muted by the thrumming white noise of the seasonal rain that pattered on around you. Actually, you always liked the rain, the pitter-patter sounds and the petrichor calmed you giving you an odd feeling of peace. So wet, cold, tired, and frayed nerves aside you held a small smile for a brief moment as the water beat over you.

As you turned down the corner that lead into the center plaza of the mall you spotted a familiar splash of bright yellow and red amongst the industrial grey and off white of the surrounding city. The vibrant mix of colors was the umbrella that topped the quaint little food trolly, not an unfamiliar sight and you recognized it as the Nice Cream cart that Gabriel loved. You still thought it was too cold for ice cream and it was getting colder with each passing week but you shrugged as you saw the pastel blue bunny monster leaning casually against the metal cart wearing his typical short sleeved work shirt, you supposed that was one of the perks of having fur. He smiled and waved earnestly to people who ventured close and you desperately racked your brain for a moment trying to put a name to the face but came up with nothing.

"Lovely weather huh?" you quipped as you passed by indicating vaguely to the rain. He seemed taken aback not sure how to respond and didn't get a chance to answer back before you had already disappeared inside the building.

Once again you started the work week with barely any sleep and more coffee than was probably healthy to compensate. After what happened last night you stayed over at your brother's apartment, you were too tense to get any proper rest then anyway. Luckily the caffeine coursing through your veins had so far kept you pleasantly distracted. Gabriel was still asleep when you left early this morning but he called you a little while later to let you know that Morrigan was staying late at school, so you figured he was doing better. At least he could string more than one sentence together.

"Hey man over here!" You were pulled out of your thoughts by the greeting and searched for the source of the husky voice.

You scanned the long, nearly empty hallway and your eyes quickly landed on her. Chandler was waving you over, making sure you knew she was the one who called out to you. Chandler worked at that trendy record store across from your studio and she gave off this breezy, bohemian vibe in everything she did. It still amazes you that you've never seen her get mad or even impatient. She was tall and curvy with short chestnut brown hair that framed her freckled face and her hazel eyes were wide and as round as her face. She stood with Nathan who was pretty much the only other person who worked at the mall that you knew well enough to eat lunch in the food court with. Nathan's dirty blonde hair poked out from his dark grey beanie in a way that was probably purposefully messy and his ice blue eyes were framed by his thick black glasses. He was lanky and angular, he had stubble that was kept neat and short and the left side of his bottom lip was pierced with a simple black ring. As you got closer you saw she was also talking to that cat guy you sometimes saw smoking outside; you didn't really know much about him or when that they had started to hang out. He was slumped up against the wall toying with the pack of cigarettes in his hands. You don't think you have ever seen that guy stand up straight without leaning lazily against something and honestly you were kind of impressed with his dedication.

"Hey, dude," Chandler greeted as you joined the group; Nathan nodded in acknowledgment, and the orange monster gave a half-hearted wave. "you coming to game night? Nathan needs to know how much taco stuff to make."

Nathan nodded again, but remained quiet as usual; he always paid attention, even if he rarely spoke up. You felt bad for turning them down, though the shrug you gave in response came all too naturally. You know you didn't make a habit of hanging out with them often, but lately you've been too busy to see them outside of work.

"Can't tonight, I'm on babysitting duty, you know how it is."

Chandler chuckled softly. "Man, that kid is all you've been talking about lately."

You laughed because she was probably right. It's been that way ever since Gabriel agreed to move into the city. "Yeah I know, family is pretty important to me. Plus, she's just too adorable for her own good."

Chandler and Nathan made matching expressions of acceptance, however, the cat monster's fur puffed out like Hemlock's does when he's upset.

"Kids weird me out, man, one second they're begging for those meals with the toys in 'em, the next they're bawling so hard you have to mop up after 'em." he said with a shudder.

"Yeah, now imagine you have to get them to sit still and smile for a family photo, it's my favorite part of the job." you quipped with an eye roll.

"See, you get it buddy." the cat monster flashed you a quick approving smile; the genuine grin looked somewhat unnatural on his face, like he didn't use it often.

Nathan broke his vow of silence as he collapsed into light giggles. You hid your amused smile behind your coffee cup and gulped down what was left. Looking up to check the large wall clock in the hallway, you suddenly realized how little time you had left to get to work.

"Well that's about as long as I can hold a conversation this early in the morning, so I better go before I dissolve into gibberish." you grumbled out for emphasis, lazily waving as you departed from their small group. You continued on towards the studio tossing the empty paper cup in the trash along the way.

-

From the mall to the elementary school was a bit out of your comfort zone in terms of walking distance, so you took the bus. The bus was good. That was, if you enjoyed being crowded into a metal tube with a large mishmash of people that all came with their own smells and noises. When you got to your stop you hurriedly got off and stepped back down to the sidewalk. You were relieved when you could once again breathe in the fresh air, or as fresh as the air got in a polluted city and quickly continued in the direction of your destination.

You soon approached the school which was a quaint little building in the city, a pristine white stone structure with blue accents. Its surrounding grounds were kept tidy and green with life. The area was fairly decent sized with room for a field and a small playground nestled mostly behind the school. Parents were pulling into the mostly empty parking lot and you instinctively pulled up the hood of your jacket not wanting to deal with them. You saw some kids were kicking a ball around outside but you didn't spare them much thought as you neared the set of double doors at the front of the building.

Pushing past the doors you entered a long open corridor, the walls painted with colorful murals and covered in a layer of taped up children's art work and projects. You were starting to get fairly familiar with the building, or at least the entrance and your way to the office from the times you had picked your niece up. Standing just inside the building now and looking around you found yourself a little lost.

Gabriel had told you that Morrigan had some sort of after school activity today but in his emotional slump he hadn't been very specific. You felt like retreating further into your jacket conjuring up images of Vincent bundling up in social anxiety. You hated the way that schools made you feel, that other parents and even teachers were judging you.

For a long moment you stood in indecisive nervousness at a loss for how to proceed. Do you just find the nearest faculty member and say 'I would like one child please.'? You finally settled on going to the office in the hopes the secretary was still there and could tell you what clubs were going on today. You made it about halfway across the large corridor before the almost creepy quiet of the school was interrupted by the thunderous slam of a door being flung outward bouncing back off the wall. With that the flood gates opened and kids poured out of a room in a sea of loud chatter. You could see Morrigan amongst the mass, she bounced happily, her light blue dress and hair swaying with her movements. She didn't notice you at first, instead she was talking to a cute little bunny monster with fluffy white fur who looked a little bit older than her. You smiled slightly, happy about the number of monster students went to the school; you were pretty sure there were also a couple monster teachers. Thinking about it you were pretty sure this was the school where Toriel taught. 

Morrigan apparently noticed you in the hallway, but to be fair you towered over the students and stuck out like a sore thumb. She called out to you and raced over launching into a hug. You laughed catching her with some effort, she really was getting heavier. 

"Hey Morri," you smiled warmly putting her back down, "what were you doing at school this late?"

"Remember when we watched the Wizard of Oz? Well well the school is doing the movie but on the stage in the big room!" Morrigan started with her usual enthusiasm.

"A play?" you interrupted her and she just nodded in a grandiose manner before eagerly continuing.

"Yeah! We're we're gonna do a play and we gotta go on stage and try to be the people from the movie and Miss Green is gonna pick who plays who! And I get to be in the play!" she finished with a small flourish looking up at you with wide eyes awaiting your response.

Well you always knew Morrigan loved to be dramatic and play out her own little stories. You had to admit it definitely seemed like something she would love. You figured she wouldn't get a main part it would probably be mostly older kids but she seemed too excited to care about what she got to be. Somehow it still made you a bit uncomfortable, you were torn between your own bad experience with actors and how over the moon your niece looked. You decided to quell your insecurities and just do your best to be happy for her.

"That's amazing sweetie." you pinched her check and she rebuffed your affection with a giggle.

"Stop it." she whined but couldn't hold back her wide grin.

"Yeah, yeah." you relented taking Morrigan's tiny hand in yours and guiding her out of the building.

As you headed away from the parking lot Morrigan told you all about her day in great detail pausing only for short responses from you. 

"Frisk!" She suddenly yelled cutting herself off mid sentence and tugged at your hand trying to run off. Caught off guard you looked over in the direction you were now being tugged.

You were surprised to see Frisk bounding up towards you from the field behind the school in some sort of sports uniform. Toriel trailed behind looking half amused by her child's antics and half apologetic for interrupting you, but she seemed to always wear a somewhat polite apologetic look. You released your niece and allowed her to meet Frisk halfway.

Morrigan immediately launched into showing Frisk the few simple signs she learned from her dad. They were still basic and clumsy but her mute friend nodded back patiently, she looked excited as if not many people put in the effort to learn for her.

"Good afternoon Morrigan, to your aunt as well," Toriel smiled to your niece then up at you with a polite nod which you return easily. "we had just finished with soccer practice when we saw you two."

"Oh you're on the soccer team kiddo?" you asked Frisk who nodded up to you, holding both of her hands in a thumbs up position.

"Oh yes, Frisk joined the team as soon as we got to the surface." Toriel doted on her child, placing a hand on her head.

Frisk locked eyes with you and pointed to herself, crossed her fingers together like a hashtag, then held up a finger. 'I'm number one?' you snorted, this kid sure was confident, you wanted to high five her.

Toriel looked as if she wanted to laugh but schooled her face into a more scolding expression "Now that's not polite to your teammates my child." Frisk signed sorry but you weren't sure if she really meant it, though it seemed to pacify her goat mom who once again focused her attention on you. "Frisk and I have a bit of a tradition, there is this pizza place she loves and it kind of became a habit to go after soccer practice. You may join us if you like."

Morrigan whipped around and wasted no time with those pleading puppy eyes. You shrugged, you had Morrigan for the night and this meant you didn't have to cook so why not. "I mean, if we're not intruding or anything..." you said making sure this tradition wasn't a strictly them thing.

"Oh no really, it'll be fun." Toriel insisted, so you relented and agreed to join them, much to both children's delight.

-

The walk to the pizza place was full of fun, light hearted conversation. Frisk told Morrigan more about soccer and in return Morrigan told her about the play. When Toriel wasn't busy translating for the two of them you and her chatted idly. It was nice to just make small talk sometimes.

The pizza restaurant wasn't some big chain, but rather a local place that probably shares its name with the owner. It had an easy going charm to it like a lot of small mom and pop type places did. 

You and Toriel were laughing about the disaster of spaghetti you made the other day with Papyrus. She could probably tell how much you enjoyed the experience even if the food didn't turn out that well. You hardly even noticed when you reached the counter.

"hey tori, this guy came in earlier and asked 'will my pizza be long?' and i said 'no sir, it'll be round.'" came a familiar deep voice from behind the counter.

Toriel snorted abruptly covering her face with one furry white paw. "Oh Sans that's so bad."

Your eyes darted up and sure enough it was Sans. You most likely made yourself look like a huge jerk last time you met. You left so quickly and rudely you were afraid about how he took it. Looking at him now with big, shocked eyes was almost definitely not helping your case, but he ignored you altogether keeping his attention on Toriel. 

"oh come on it wasn't that cheesy was it?" he continued, his permanent grin seemingly growing just the tiniest bit. 

"I don't think I'll be topping that pizza joke." Toriel quipped back. All you could do was sit back and watch the pun war rage around you.

"yeah, you should probably order i knead the dough." Sans smirked obviously quite proud of himself.

Luckily Frisk jumped in stopping the flow of bad pizza puns, signing quickly at the skeleton. Sans chuckled and you wondered if she traitorously joined in.

"the usual then?" he asked but it looked as if he was already ringing it up on the cash register.

"Yes that sounds lovely, but also whatever Morrigan and her aunt are getting, my treat." Toriel responded gesturing to you. You were not ready for the focus to shift to you and you were left gaping like a big mouth bass.

"N-no really I have ours covered don't worry about it." you sputtered.

"Really my chil-, really it is no problem. It would make me feel better for diverting you if you allowed me to pay." Toriel insisted in a way that made it awkward to argue with her, she really was a natural mother hen type.

"Y-you really don't have to it's fine." you threw in as a last ditch effort.

"Yes, but I would like to." Toriel rebuffed good naturedly.

"Oh o-ok." you gave in allowing Toriel to pay for your meal.

Sans was watching you throughout the exchange in a cold, detached manner. You really must be making a horrible impression on this guy.

"what'll it be." Sans droned on as if you were a particularly annoying customer. 

"I want cheese!" Morrigan piped up for the first time in a while, throwing both you and Sans off. You looked down at your niece who was in turn staring up at Sans bouncing with innocent excitement.

"Yeah that's one slice of cheese pizza and one slice of pepperoni." You ordered quickly while Sans's glare fell looking down at Morrigan and Frisk.

He nodded distractedly but a small mischievous smirk played across his skull. He entered the order along with Toriel's and she asked you to take the kids to find a table while she paid. You nodded and lead Frisk and Morrigan to a booth by the window.

"What is that guy's deal?" you muttered under your breath.


	8. A Pizza My Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I this is a shorter chapter than normal but a lot of stuff has been going on lately and I really wanted to get something out. I really hope you guys are enjoying my story. You can talk to me on tumblr all you want or comment on here feedback helps keep Sarcasm and Puns alive!  
> https://www.tumblr.com/blog/myfluffybluehoodie

You stared out of the window, admittedly in a bit of a mood. Why was it bugging you so much that this guy didn't seem to like you? Maybe it was because the coldness seemed sudden or that it was probably your fault. You were going to ruin this for Morrigan weren't you, not being able to just play nice with her friend's family. You sighed, trying to urge yourself to just put the thoughts aside while staring at the parking lot littered with puddles.

"What do you think?" Toriel's voice finally snapped you back to the table. She was looking at you and her expectant face became a bit worried. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? No I'm fine, I just zoned out for a moment." your smile was slightly forced but you were happy for the distraction.

"alright, pizzas' up." came Sans's voice from behind you. Well that distraction didn't last long.

Sans served the table reciting the order as he went "one slice of cheese pizza and one slice of pepperoni." he finished, placing Morrigan's plate of pizza in front of the child and finally your plate. Which did in fact have one slice of pepperoni on it, and by that you meant the topping and not the full pizza slice. One lone pepperoni sat sadly in the middle of your plate and you could feel your eye twitch.

You looked up at Sans and that damn smile was wider than normal, making his face look smug and satisfied, causing something in you to snap.

You made a noise that sounded oddly similar to a growl, but the table's laughter caused you to take a deep breath. You couldn't just go off on this guy so you stood muttering a quick excuse to the table, and left. You needed some air, you blindly wandered just outside and slammed yourself against the wall gasping in as many calming breaths as you could.

The entrance door to your left opened and you could see the blue jacket in your peripheral. You exhaled sharply, and stared down at your shoes, refusing to be the first to speak. A plate holding a delicious looking slice of pepperoni pizza was held under your face as if it was a begrudging peace offering.

"i had it ya know, it was just a joke. maybe it wasn't that humerus." he shrugged, smile still wide on his face, but when you didn't take the plate he sighed and leaned against the wall next to you.

"Did I offend you somehow?" you huffed out still staring down at the ground.

Sans shrugged again.

"Look I'm sorry if you don't like me or I did something, but as long as Morrigan and Frisk are friends we'll probably have to see each other." You finally lifted your head and turned to him. He looked almost bored as if he's used to this kind of conversation. "I don't care if you don't like me, I have a grand total of one friend. Well... I guess two now because of Papyrus." you smiled at the memory of calling Papyrus your friend.

Sans let you rant, nodding a bit as you did so. He waited a beat after you finished before launching into his own speech. "if you actually plan to stick 'round i gotta pizza advice for ya." he said gesturing with the plate in his hand. "don't hurt them and we'll get along just fine."

You weren't sure how to respond to that, you couldn't shake the fact that it sounded like you were threatened by a 1920's mobster. The image of Sans in a nice Italian suit made you giggle and you couldn't hold on to your tension or anger any longer.

"You're real cute when you're being serious, Sans." you smiled at his stunned expression and took the plate from him. You left him outside and took your rapidly cooling pizza back inside to your table.

-

The rest of the meal went much better and soon you were back home in your apartment. Morri and Vincent had taken up the floor coloring in her coloring books with a wide variety of crayons fanned out around them. You had taken up your favorite spot on the couch, curled up with your 3ds in your hands. Your phone vibrated and you fished it out of your pocket.

Papyrus's name and number flashed on the screen and you smiled quickly opening the message.

'FOR NO REASON IN PARTICULAR, WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW HUMAN?' 

You're pretty sure if anyone else texted you in all caps all the time it would wear on you, but knowing the actual enthusiasm Papyrus puts behind everything it was really quite endearing. 

You texted back 'Oh I'm just playing this puzzle game, what about you?' You put your phone down on the arm of the couch next to you, but it quickly buzzed again.

'YOU LIKE PUZZLES!? YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY A HUMAN OF A HIGH CALIBER.'

You chuckled at the response. 'I'll show you my game sometime if you want.'

Just as you finished your text Gabriel barged through the door without knocking. That wasn't unusual he hardly ever actually knocked. "Morri I'm home!" he announced causing his daughter to get up and run towards him.

"Daddy!" she squealed jumping easily into his waiting arms and he swung her around. 

"What did you do today MorMor?" he asked settling her in his hip.

With that she went off on a long story about her day. You couldn't pretend that you didn't see his face fall when she mentioned the play, but he quickly hid it. When she got to Sans it was your turn to cringe.

"I don't what that guy's deal is." you said when Gabriel looked at you questioningly.

"Well if he messes with my baby sister I know what his problem is going to be." Gabe said matter of factly.

"Baby sister? You aren't that much older than me." you crossed your arms.

"Yeah, yeah whatever you're still my little sister." he stuck his tongue out at you childishly.

"Real mature." you rolled your eyes. "I think I can handle myself by the way." you said, but you were sure he knew how much you appreciated how protective he was. Oh... Was Sans just trying to protect his family? You suddenly remembered some of the words he used 'if you stick 'round' and how poorly some people talk about monsters. "He's probably just being an over protective bast-" you stopped yourself from cussing in front of your niece. "brother like you. I'll win him over with my flawless charm eventually." you joked mocking your own social skills.

"Still if he starts things with you don't hesitate to call me." he said heading out the door.

"Yeah, sure I promise." you waved off his comment shutting the door behind him.


	9. A/N may be deleted

Is anyone out there still reading this story? I'm sorry if this comes off real sad and needy but I'm just wondering if I should continue writing Sarcasm and Puns.


	10. Dating Start?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for all of your support! I love reading all of your comments it makes me so happy. This chapter is also a little short and I was wondering if you guys like these shorter chapters if it means I post more often or do you guys like the longer chapters? I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good please let me know what you think.

The rest of your work week went pretty normally, though Papyrus did keep texting you asking you asking you questions that ranged from 'ON A SCALE FROM ONE TO TEN HOW MUCH DO YOU LOVE SPAGHETTI?' to 'WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT SKELETONS' That last one made you laugh and you gave skeletons a glowing review. You've also been texting back and forth with Alphys, setting up a big anime viewing party at her and Undyne's place. That was going to be on Sunday because it best fit everybody's schedule. You somehow went from never leaving the house to going to two "parties" in two weeks. When did that happen?

You weren't unpleasantly busy and now you had more people you regularly talked to... It felt nice, but still a bit odd after years of only being close to family and the one friend you have had for forever. You've had people you've worked with and people you've gone to school with, but they've never been that close. You found yourself hoping that these monsters you've just met don't end up falling in the category of "hey we're kind of friends, but not really, so maybe we'll see each other occasionally".

Either way you were loitering around the mall after your shift trying to decide what to buy Vincent for his birthday. It was nearly a week away and today was the last day he's out of town for work so now was the perfect time to waste a day shopping. He acted like a giant child but every time you said something like "he's out of town for work." you're reminded he is a professional with a much better job than you. You turned a corner towards the middle of the mall spotting the bright blue fish monster scowling down at the mall directory as if interrogating it for answers. People were walking around her in a wide arc, probably instinctually avoiding her wrath.

Undeterred, you approached her anyway. "Hey Undyne." you greeted.

Undyne whipped around to face you with a relieved grin. "Heyya punk! You work here right?"

"What here in the hallway? Na, I don't think they hire hall monitors." You immediately joked.

Undyne's smile curled into a scowl and damn those sharp teeth were the scariest thing you've seen on a monster. You were sure you fucked up and half sure you were about to die, but then she threw her back and laughed.

"Good one nerd! But seriously, can you help me out?"

"Sure. What are you looking for?" you shrugged and stood next to her so you could scan the directory.

Undyne turned back to the map and crossed her arms again glaring down at it. "I heard there was a cool new store that opened up that sells a bunch of awesome anime stuff."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that 'cause they also sell a ton of gaming merch. I think it's on the second floor." You remembered Chandler and Nathan talking a bunch about the place when it opened about a month ago. It apparently sold a lot of figurines and plushies from all facets of geek culture. Now that you thought about it, you could probably get a good gift for Vincent there. "You know what, I'll help you look I've been meaning to check it out myself."

"AWESOME! Let's go punk!" Undyne's wide fanged smile returned with increased exuberance. She grabbed your arm in a harsh, almost crushing manner and dragged you with her as she sprinted towards the stairs. You were given the option of jogging along behind her or being dragged like a limp ragdoll in her grip. You decided you didn't really want to face plant on the floor so you did your best to keep up.

-

You beamed down at the large bag in your hand, quite proud of your purchase. You were sure Vincent was going to love his present. Turning away from the register you found the fish monster you were with elbows deep in a bin of obscure, at least to you, plush characters from what looked to be early 90's animes. She pulled out some kind of pink haired cat girl and grinned down at it victoriously. Her sharp teeth shined as she cackled making the other customers around her jump in surprise.

"What'cha got there?" you asked strolling over to Undyne.

She turned to you immediately shoving the plush in your face, too close for you to actually see it clearly. "Well duh nerd, it's Mew Mew. She's is like Alphys's favorite!"

For some reason that name seemed to click with you and then you remembered Alphys's sudden change of demeanor at dinner. She had mentioned something about that hadn't she? "Uh the 'kissy' thing?" you guess trying to stumble through your memories for the right words.

"Mew Mew Kissy Cutie!" Undyne corrected easily.

"So you guys are real big fans, huh?" your face lit up fondly as you took the plush doll from her and looked it over. It gave you really heavy 90's magic girl anime vibes with its outfit and colors.

"I mean it's pretty cool I guess, but Alphys is way more into it than I am." She shrugged.

"You should totally get it for her then." you encouraged handing the toy back.

"Yeah!" She belted out marching the small doll up to the counter as you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket.

You maneuvered the phone out of your pocket and checked the message.

'HUMAN, ARE YOU BY CHANCE FREE AT THE MOMENT?' The phone vibrated again in your hand. 'I MEAN, I WOULD UNDERSTAND IF YOU WERE BUSY, BUT I FEEL AS THOUGH YOU SHOULD HAVE TIME FOR FRIENDS, ESPECIALLY ONE AS GREAT AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS!'

You chuckled in response, something you found yourself doing nearly every time the tall skeleton texted you, and quickly typed out "Na, I'm at the mall, but I'm pretty much done. What's up?'

You jumped when you heard Undyne’s snickering behind you, you hadn’t noticed her peeking over your shoulder. “Really?” you asked incredulously.

She shrugged, showing no remorse for her sneaking.

After a few moments your phone buzzed again. 'AH VERY GOOD. WELL I WAS HOPING YOU COULD COME OVER TO MY HOUSE. IT IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE!"

'Ya sure where do you live?' you sent back ignoring Undyne’s laughter.

-

When you and Undyne parted ways at the mall she pulled you into a crushing hug and told you to say hey to Papyrus for her with a wink. You weren’t sure what she meant by that, if it meant anything at all, so you ignored the gesture. You flagged down a taxi because Papyrus’s house was just outside of the city, not quite as far as Toriel’s, but you definitely weren’t going to walk it. Your cab ride went by in merciful silence except for the sound of some top forty station playing over the radio, and soon enough you pulled up to a decent-looking two story house. It was a nice, humble wooden house with Christmas lights already strung up haphazardly along the roof trim. The grass in the lawn was a bit long and had a few flamingo ornaments strewn across it. You double checked the address, paid the driver, and stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the house.

As you walked up to the house you caught movement at the window out of the corner of your eye. It was a quick flash of what you were sure was Papyrus’s skull, but he dove out of the way as you turned to look at him. The curtain fluttered in his wake, and you smiled as you continued up to the door. You could clearly him, he was probably standing right behind the door. You knocked and before you could even drop your hand the door was swung open, proving you right.

“HELLO HUMAN! I AM VERY GLAD YOU MADE IT! PLEASE COME IN.” Papyrus’s voice boomed, his greeting is always louder than his normal speaking volume.

“Hey Papyrus,” you greeted back, stepping inside and looking around at the cozy furniture that looked worn and loved. “what was ‘of the utmost importance’?” you quoted back at the skeleton. As you said this, you heard light chuckling in the background. You searched behind Papyrus for the source of the noise, seeing Sans leaning up against the doorframe to the kitchen.

“WELL, YOU SEE… IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU HAVE AN UNHEALTHY, BUT COMPLETELY UNDERSTANDABLE OBSESSION WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS.” This made you lose all interest in the small, giggling skeleton, but before you could respond Papyrus was already continuing. “IT IS VERY CLEAR THAT I AM BOTH GREAT AND CHARMING AND WOULD BE INCREDIBLY EASY TO DEVELOP FEELINGS FOR.”

“Yeah, I have no clue what you’re talking about.” You admitted, fully lost.

“I AM SO SORRY HUMAN BUT I DO NOT RETURN YOUR INTEREST IN ME.” Papyrus continued.

“Are you saying you don’t want to be my friend?” You asked trying to figure out what the hell he was talking about. You heard Sans snort from his perch.

“NO NOT AT ALL, I VERY MUCH ENJOY US HANGING OUT PLATONICALLY! I JUST DO NOT THINK WE SHOULD DATE!”

“What? Date? When did I ever say I wanted to date you?” You spurted out before realizing how mean that might have sounded. You were glad Papyrus didn’t seem to notice. Sans had lost it at this point and was no longer holding back his laughter.

Papyrus regarded you curiously and you stared right back looking just as confused, if not more so.


	11. SciFi Soulmates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so were back to longer chapters for now!

You stood in the middle of the skeleton brothers’ homely living room. It was simply furnished, but it was full of charm and clearly lived in. From what you could tell it was mostly neat but you were sure you saw a stray sock or two by the stairs. The coffee table was littered with books, toys, and for some reason a rock? You didn’t get much of a chance to look around though because you were sharing confused looks with the taller of the two brothers. You both seemed at a loss for words and the silence would have been suffocating and awkward if it wasn’t for the deep voiced chuckles coming from the kitchen entrance. Sans had apparently found the whole situation amusing from the very beginning. You pulled your gaze away from Papyrus’s skull, that mimicked your look of confusion so well it awed you with how malleable the skeleton monster’s bones were. You instead shifted your gaze to the shorter, hoodie clad skeleton, narrowing your eyes at him.

“HUMAN I MUST CONFESS I AM AT A LOSS! IF YOU TRULY HAVE NO ROMANTIC MOTIVES WHY DO WE SHARE COMMON INTERESTS, AND WHY DO YOU FLATTER ME WITH COMPLIMENTS?” Papyrus asked before you could lay into his brother.

You turned back to Papyrus somehow even more confused by his words. “Because we’re friends? I mean you can like the same stuff and be nice without wanting to date each other.” You felt as though you were explaining the situation to an impressionable child so you tried to pick your words much more carefully than normal.

“BECAUSE WE’RE FRIENDS?” Papyrus seemed both happy and confused as if it was new information he hadn’t considered. “BUT SANS AND THE DATING MANUAL SAY THAT YOUR WORDS AND ACTIONS ARE… flirtatious…” he muttered that last word as if it was taboo.

You again glared at your friend’s brother. “Sans did huh?” you asked making eye contact with said monster instead of the one you were talking to. Sans shrugged, not appearing sheepish in the least, as if challenging you to say something about it. “Well don’t worry about it Papyrus, you are safe from my womanly wiles.” You sighed melodramatically.

Sans’s smile drops for just a second at your words as if surprised by them. You wondered how he had expected you to react. Was he counting on this to be overly embarrassing for you or did he think you were some kind of asshole who was just putting up with monsters, expecting some sort hidden hatred to come bubbling up out of you at the mere mention of human/monster dating? Either way it felt as though he didn’t think much of you. You wondered if you were changing his mind at all.

“AH! IS THAT SO, HUMAN?” Papyrus spoke up drawing your attention back to him. “I WAS UNAWARE YOU HAD GENDER RELATED JAPES!” he stroked his jaw in thought but otherwise seemed to accept your answer.

“Yeah that’s probably because they aren’t very good.” You laughed weakly at you own self-deprecating joke.

“i dunno they must work every once in a wile.” Sans said finally formally joining the conversation, coming to stand next to his brother. His smirk was back on his face along with his normal aura of confident ease.

You and Papyrus both groaned at the same moment of realization that, of course, that was a pun. Papyrus glared at him, crossing his arms. “NOT IN FRONT OF THE HUMAN SANS!” This prompted Sans to merely chuckle and shrug. Their banter went on for a few more minutes, eventually the three of you decided to stop standing around awkwardly when Papyrus excitedly suggested that you all watch a movie.

“WELL HUMAN, AS A GREAT HOST, I MUST INSIST YOU CHOOSE WHAT MOVIE WE WATCH!” Papyrus announced with a tone of sincerity guiding you further into the living room. “DOCTOR ALPHYS INSTALLED A MOST INGENIOUS PROGRAM ON OUR TV SO YOUR CHOICES ARE VAST!” he explained pulling up Netflix on the screen.

Papyrus sat down on one side of the couch and you noticed Sans was already sitting on the other side, his elbow lazily resting on the arm looking as though he could fall asleep at any moment. This forced you to sit in between them.

You took the controls from Papyrus and started to scroll through your options thinking about what to watch. Papyrus seemed content to let you choose but you didn’t want to selfishly bore them. “Do you guys like SciFi?” you asked.

Sans sat up a little straighter in the seat next to you, but Papyrus again looked confused. He turned to you, “WHAT IS SCI-FI?” he asked.

“It’s short for science fiction, you know stuff about space, the future, or advanced technology?” You described already going through all the classics in your head trying to think of the perfect one for Papyrus.

“OH! SO IT IS EDUCATIONAL?”

“Eh, not really. It’s mostly made up stuff.” You shrugged. Papyrus didn’t seem to quite get it but you figured it would be easier to just show him. “You know what 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the greats, it’s a bit old though.”

Sans cleared his throat loudly, which really made you wonder how the hell that worked, and you turned to him. He gave you a look that was clearly telling you that you had chosen poorly. Sans might be right it’s not too dark or graphic but it might be a bit slow and surreal for someone with Papyrus’s energy. “Iron Giant? The animated movie about the robot?” you tried again this time looking to Sans for conformation. He shrugged but didn’t seem against the idea.

“haven’t seen it.” He admitted.

“NETHER HAVE I.” Papyrus agreed.

“Sweet, I haven’t had a chance to see somebody’s first reaction to it in forever.” You smiled happily pulling up the movie.

Papyrus was completely enraptured before even half way through the movie and even Sans seemed to be enjoying it. Sans had leaned closer to you to while his brother’s eye sockets were glued to the screen and softly spoke in your ear. “hmm, ketchup and scifi, i guess that’s more we have in common.”

“Two things? Wow, we must be soulmates.” You sarcastically joked before you could stop yourself.

Sans seemed momentarily stunned by your choice of words but let out a few soft “heh’s”.

“trying to use those ‘womanly wiles’ on me?” Sans asked you with a wink.

You rolled your eyes, “You can’t hold that over me forever.” Despite your words you found yourself smiling. It felt more like when you first met him at Grillby’s, when talking to him was easy and comfortable you very much hoped he felt the same way.

“eh i could but that’d be no fun, i’m sure you’ll give me plenty of good material.” He shrugged and smiled in a way that no longer looked smug.

“SANS! I CAN’T HEAR THE CHILD HUMAN IN THE MOVIE, CEASE YOU BOONDONGERY!” Papyrus waved his gloved hand in your and Sans’s face, shushing the two of you.

-

The three of you watched movies for hours, and Papyrus eventually fell asleep. Sans left you alone on the couch so he could carry his brother upstairs, most likely to his room. You were surprised by how easily Sans lifted his brother, and carried him like he was nothing. You stood and looked around, not snooping, you weren’t going to be creepy, just looking at stuff that was obviously visible or on display. On closer inspection, you noticed the rock sitting on the coffee table was covered in sprinkles… yeah you would have to ask about that one later. You would have checked the titles of some of the books on the table, but you stopped, suddenly feeling weird, as if someone or something was watching you.

You looked up, intent on turning around to see if Sans had returned downstairs, but as soon as you lifted your head you saw something else. You stumbled backwards in surprise and let out a small yelp. A fluffy little white dog was sitting in front of you wagging his tail. You weren’t scared of dogs, you loved dogs, but where the fuck had this one come from? You hadn’t seen or heard it around the house the entire time you were here and neither of the brothers had mentioned having a dog. Yet somehow the little fluffball sat there staring at you like he owned the place.

”did he give you pawse?” came Sans’s voice from behind you.

“You have a dog?” you asked without turning around keeping your eyes on the mystery dog.

“eh it’s more like he has us, he just kinda shows up when he wants so we started feeding him and stuff.”

“How did he get in?” you voiced your main concern from finding the dog.

“i dunno he just does, drives paps mad so he calls him ‘the annoying dog’ so I call him ann d.”

Ann D yipped happily at the name and sprung up from his seat, and waddled off further into the house. You turned around to talk to Sans face to face, “It’s getting late, I should probably go home.”

“you got a ride?” he asked, “i noticed you came in a cab earlier.” He explained.

“It’s fine I can just call for another taxi.” You answered pulling out your phone to do so.

“it’d be cheaper and easier if i just gave you a ride.” Sans offered you with a shrug.

“I’d really hate to be a burden.” You explained, and it was true you really didn’t like feeling like you were inconveniencing people.

“na c’mon it’s no skin off my nose, and besides i wouldn’t feel right ‘bout letting you go off alone this late.” Sans moved closer grabbing his keys from the coffee table.

“I can take care of myself.” You assured him, wondering why he suddenly cared. He was probably just offering out of obligation.

“look you can take this as an apology, i’ll never say that’s what it is, but ya’know.” He again shrugged, his smile playful and his movements relaxed.

“Ok, ok you win Sans, you can take me home.” You huffed, faking annoyance, and putting your phone away.

Sans chuckled and gestured you to follow him as he started to move through the house. He had led you out to their garage where you found most of the space that wasn’t taken up by boxes held an expensive looking shiny red car.

“This is yours?” you asked pointing to the car and raising an eyebrow at him, it didn’t really seem his style.

“na it’s pap’s.” he brushed off your question easily instead pulling the sheet off a sleek, dark green motorcycle.

Your eyes widened at the bike in surprise, you could admit to yourself that it did seem more like Sans than the car, but you’ve never been on a motorcycle before in your life, hell you hated normal bikes. “Really, you’re going to take me home on that?” you found yourself asking in surprise and reluctance.

“yeah kid, i was bone to be wild.” Sans answered you with a wink procuring helmets from a nearby box. You ignored the awful pun in favor of staring dumbfounded at the motorcycle.

“I think I’d rather just call the cab.” You chuckled nervously.

“c’mon, no need to be scared, i’m no bonehead i know how to drive.” He smirked tauntingly at you, daring you to back down, but you took a deep breath and found yourself more and more intrigued by the idea.

“If I die because of you I swear to god I’m gonna haunt your ass.” You pointed your finger at him warningly, but nonetheless giving in.

“fair enough.” He agreed. He put on his helmet and you copied him, putting on the one he handed to you.

He moved the bike outside and you followed behind unsure of what else to do. He closed the garage after you, and straddled the bike. He then turned back and held his boney hand out to you offering to help you on. You hesitated for a moment before taking his offered hand, surprised to find it was warm unlike bone. Magic, you repeated to yourself in your mind, he’s magic. He helped you onto the bike behind him and let you take a second to find your balance.

“it might be easier if you hold onto me.” He suggested, turning the engine on before you had a chance to reply. The bike below you roaring to life caused you to startle, you wrapped your arms around his middle as if on instinct. He chuckled at your reaction causing you to blush in embarrassment. You felt as though you wanted to say something to your defense but again he didn’t give you the chance, pulling out of the driveway.

For the first minute or so you had your head down, buried in Sans’s shoulder, afraid to look up. You soon enough found the courage to look up and you were enthralled at what you saw. The wind whipping past you and the glow of the street lamps making way to the night life lights of the city were beautiful and exhilarating.

“Wow.” You whispered despite yourself and you could feel Sans’s middle rumble as he laughed quietly.

"if i knew you liked to ride this much maybe i would have made nice sooner." Sans said in a way that you could hear his smirk without seeing his face.

You threw back your head and laughed at Sans’s joke louder than you’ve laughed in a while.

-

Sooner than you would have liked Sans pulled up to your apartment building and idled his bike by the entrance. You stepped down and your legs felt wobbly after the ride.

“whoa kid, i know i joked about you flirting with skeletons, but i didn’t think you’d fall for me.” Sans joked, making fun of the way you stumbled.

“Can’t help it you’re just too cute Sans.” You sarcastically replied as you pulled off your helmet and handing it back to him.

He chuckled at that and took the helmet from you. “seeya later kiddo.”

“Bye Sans.” You smiled and waved to him as he took off back down the street.

-

A little later that night as you were getting ready for bed you got a text message. You didn’t recognize the number and it just said ‘knock knock’. You had a feeling you knew who it was so you replied.

‘Who’s there?’

‘i am’ came the response. You don’t think you’ve heard this one and you’ve heard many with Vincent and Morrigan around, so now you were curious.

‘I am who?’ You texted back sitting on your bed. You yawned as the reply came in.

‘you don’t know who you are?’

You laughed at that and laid back on your bed holding the phone over your face as you texted back. ‘Ok, that was a good one. Good night Sans.’

‘night’.

You put your phone down on the nightstand, and turned off the light.


	12. Photos in the Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OK so this chapter is up! I'm getting much better at getting these things down once a week/once every two weeks!

Does anything look prettier while in decay than a tree? The leaves go from varying shades of deep green to anywhere in a spectrum of bright reds, oranges, and yellows. You knew they weren't dying, only going dormant, but you thought your point still stood. The park in autumn was one of your favorite places for this reason. Vincent once said it was like 'watching the world's slowest explosion'.

You felt your shoulder get bumped by another shoulder, looking over you saw your brother who was sitting next to you at the park. "Zone out again, space case?" Gabriel mocked teasingly, not looking at you because his eyes were trained on Morrigan who was playing in the leaves.

"Space case? Did you get all your insults from middle school?" You joked back easily.

"Maybe." He shrugged, you could see his lips curl up into a smile from his profile.

"It's just pretty out." You shrugged in response. “You got any ideas for Halloween yet?” You asked, fall always made you think about Halloween, it was one of your favorite holidays. You remember the few times as kids that you and Gabriel wore costumes that matched in theme.

“SHH! Do not mention the holiday that shall not be named. There is no reason to get Morrigan excited this early.” He turned to stare at you sternly, clearly warning you to avoid mentioning it.

You held your hands up in surrender, smile wickedly playing at the corner of your lips. You could ruin your brother’s next month with insistent questions from an eager child if you wished, but for now you backed down.

“Daddy!” Morrigan squealed running up to you and her father with leaves stuck in her hair, the tip of her nose rosy from the cold.

“Morri!” He echoed back throwing his arms wide open to catch her in a hug.

She didn’t stop, instead launching into a hug at full speed, sending them both backwards onto the grass from Gabriel’s sitting position in a fit of giggles.

“I’m hungry.” Morrigan announced in a muffled voice to her father from her place pressed against his chest. He moved to sit up, arms still wrapped around his daughter, hauling her up with him.

“Hungry huh? Me too… Maybe I’ll eat you!” He threatened with mock sincerity, tickling her.

“NO DADDY!” She laughed loudly, squirming to try and to break free.

“Ok, ok. How about we go see what food carts are around?” He pulled back freeing her. She bounced back up to her feet nodding enthusiastically. “You coming?” Gabriel asked you as he got up.

“Yeah sure.” You shrugged moving to follow behind them. You grabbed your messenger bag that sat beside you slinging it over your shoulder.

“C’mon!” Morrigan urged grabbing her dad’s hand in her much smaller one trying to drag him to the more central area of the park where food carts usually set up shop.

The three of you made your way back down the path, scanning for a good-looking cart as you walked.

“Well, hotdogs or pretzels MorMor?” Gabriel asked narrowing down the choices for his daughter.

“Hotdogs!” Morrigan cheered, happily jumping in place with the excitement only a child could unironically display.

You tended to fall into comfortable silences when watching your brother interact with Morrigan, you often didn’t feel as though it was necessary to join in on these small moments, as if you would break something by trying to get involved.

“That sound good?” Gabriel asked turning his attention to you.

“I’ll pretty much eat anything.” You answered by default.

“Good, ‘cause you’re paying.” Gabriel smirked already leading his daughter over to the food vendor.

You rolled your eyes instinctually at his comment but followed along nonetheless, you seemed to be following your brother around all your life. “I always pay for you, you’re why I spend all my money on food.” You groaned causing Gabriel to laugh.

“Sans!” Morrigan gleefully cried as she peaked her head over the cart spying said skeleton sitting lazily behind it.

“Sans?” You questioned for the first time making eye contact with the monster behind the food cart.

“what never seen a monster with two jobs before?” The skeleton drawled as if it was rehearsed.

You opened your mouth, ready to reply with some sarcastic joke but Gabriel beat you to it extending his hand out to Sans, smiling though you could tell it was a little forced. “Sans, huh? It’s nice to meet you, you weren’t at dinner.”

“na had to work, gabriel right?” Sans shrugged but extended his hand anyway.

“Yeah, I’ve hear-“ Gabriel’s words stopped as their hands met in a handshake, because as soon as they came in contact a loud farting sound emitted from between them.

You and Gabriel shared a moment of silence while Morrigan dissolved into a fit of giggles.

Sans chuckled along with her, “ol’ whoopee cushion in the hand trick, works every time.” He said wiggling the hand with the now deflated gag toy to the child causing her laughter fit to redouble.

Gabriel tried to keep a serious face, and that lasted about as long as an ice cube on the surface of the sun, his own immature laughter won out. “That’s a new one, I’ve got to try it sometime.” He complimented.

“Don’t.” You deadpanned.

“Whatever mom.” He joke-whined childishly.

You were quickly losing track of how many times you’ve rolled your eyes at him, but despite that you were trying your best not to smile, less from the joke and more from everyone else’s enjoyment. “So, is the cart just for decoration, or do you actually sell hotdogs?” You asked Sans.

“oh yeah, and frankly they’re delicious. you’d really relish them, especially while it’s chili out, dog.” Sans said, smile evident in his voice.

Gabriel chuckled while you held back your groan, even Morrigan seemed to pick up on the puns and giggled as well. “If I wanted to eat hotdogs and hear puns I could have stayed home.” You grumped crossing your arms.

Gabriel ordered a chili dog and Morrigan’s plain hotdog, meanwhile you ordered your own hotdog very specifically. You might still be a bit wary of ordering food from him since the pizza incident.

“Oh are you left handed?” You asked as you watched him and remembered all the times he used his left hand dominantly.

“uh, yeah i guess.” Sans answered a bit unsure raising his hand to stare at it for a moment, as if he had never thought about it.

“You know a lot of cultures believed that being left handed was a sign of being in some way prone to magic.” You said, eager to share the random knowledge, before you realized you just said that… to a magical skeleton monster.

Gabriel seemed to pick up that as well, leaning towards you and mock whispering, “Smooth.”

Sans chuckled, his empty eyes seemed to light up with the material you just gave him “i don’t wanna skull’d you, but it’s magical how monstrously bad that was.”

Your cheeks burned with embarrassment, you tilted your head down to stare at your shoes, not wanting to look up at his taunting face. You busied yourself by shuffling off to the side of the cart with your niece helping her putting condiments on her food and smothering your own with an unhealthy amount of ketchup.

Gabriel still stood right in front of Sans. He leaned forward and lowered his voice, probably in an attempt to not be over heard, but you still heard him. “Isn’t my little sister amazing?” he said. You didn’t hear Sans’s reply, if he was given a chance to because Gabriel continued. “I don’t know what I would do if anyone ever hurt her or my daughter.” His voice was subtle but you recognized the protective big brother tone immediately. You kept your head down trying not to let on that you could her him. Sans chuckled but his words were too quiet to make out. “See you get it!” Gabriel’s voice took a more normal volume, his speech happier.

You waved bye to Sans as Gabriel, with Morrigan in tow as ever, jauntily wandered away to find a place to sit and eat. Sans waved back before slumping back into his foldable chair.

-

After you finished eating, Morrigan immediately went back to playing, this time with her father running after her. You felt yourself smiling like an idiot watching them, you reached into your bag pulling out your camera. Messing with it for a moment, you fiddled with the settings before pointing it at the pair. Taking candid photos was a love of yours, you have always enjoyed it. Which might be why you loved your job, but didn’t find it fully satisfying. Everything posed, proper, and perfect was great for a family portrait or Christmas card, but it wasn’t how you wanted your personal photos.

Snapping the shot, you pulled the camera away from your face to check it on the screen. You smiled down at the image, until you noticed something. In the background was a familiar skeleton waving directly at the camera. You looked but Sans was nowhere to be found in front of you. Whipping around towards the cart, you found him still sitting in his chair idly playing with his phone not paying any attention to you or your group. You stared back down at your camera, he was definitely in the photo. You glared at the image unable to explain it, you huffed and picked the camera up again. Checking over your shoulder once more, making sure Sans seemed disinterested, before taking a second photo. Checking the screen, you groaned finding the skeleton again in your photo, this time closer, more smug looking.

That was it, you were fed up. You stood up, camera in hand, and stomped over to Sans’s food cart. Sans had to have known you were coming over because he looked up at you with a smirk. “hey.” He greeted you, ignoring how angry you must have looked.

“Why? You know what, more importantly, how?” You demanded holding the camera up to him, showing him the screen.

“i dunno, but you know what… i once heard left handed people were prone to magic.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggle with telling if any of my own writing is good any sort of feedback is welcome!


	13. Anime Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Here it is as promised! I really hope you guys like this chapter.

You and Vincent got off of the crowded subway and walked back up to street level. Soon enough you were turning onto a street where the houses were much nicer than your apartment, and larger than the other monsters' houses in the suburbs. You glanced down at your phone once again checking the directions Alphys sent you.

"Well, I'm nervous now." Vincent supplied, looking around at the fancy housing around the two of you. You had to agree that it was a much nicer neighborhood than you were expecting. You didn't mind nearly as much as your friend, but you were still surprised. It wasn't that you didn't think monsters could make it into places like this, it had just been a long time since you'd visited a place this expensive-looking. The place was posh, just one step down from a gated community. You did feel slightly out of place, and Vincent definitely agreed if the way he pulled his jacket closer to himself in an effort to make himself smaller was anything to go by.

"They're really chill people though. I mean Undyne's a bit abrasive, but that's a separate issue to the..." You gestured around you to the extravagant homes.

"They're chill? You'd think in a place like this they could afford a heater." Vincent laughed weakly at his own forced pun. You didn't have the heart to mock his clumsy attempt at humor, you could tell he felt out of his element.

"Don't you see shit like this all the time when you're networking for work?" You asked trying to shift the focus slightly to calm your friend, who was quite honestly five feet of concentrated nervous energy half the time.

"Dude, hotels and office buildings I'm cool with but this... This is a new ballpark." He explained, arms flailing wildly as he did so. You smiled and bumped into him causing him to push you back with a smile of his own.

"C'mon it'll be fun." You sing-songed reassuringly.

"It's too late to back out now anyways. And there's no way I'm gonna sit here for another half an hour waiting for the next train to come through." Vincent admitted, rallying himself.

"There you go, Vinny." You clapped him on the back and stared back down at your phone. "Pretty sure that's it." you said pointing at the house across the street.

"Let's go before I change my mind and find a comfy bench to sit on." Vincent muttered crossing the street. 

Vincent had a good job, hell he made a lot of money, but he preferred to stay in the apartment. He had made excuses like, he loved how fast the wifi was, or you would be lost without him, and most recently, that he didn't want to get into a custody battle over your cat. You were pretty sure it had to do with his family. His family was much better off than yours, but he never went to see them. He spent most of his time at your house when you were kids, hell he came out of the closet because he had a crush on Gabriel. You knew places like this made him feel like he was back home and it wasn't a happy reunion.

You rang the doorbell as soon as you approached the house leaving no time for your best friend to back out of meeting your other friends. Were they really your friends? You guessed Papyrus was, but you only just met these people and you always had trouble just labeling anyone you hung out with as 'your friend'. They had all seemed to embrace you willingly, except for Sans who just seemed to tolerate your existence. Monsters were just friendly creatures from what you've seen. Maybe they were a little bit apprehensive of humans sometimes, but you knew that was probably a necessary survival skill.

The door was ripped open seconds after the bell sounded through the house and there stood Undyne. She was tall, to Vincent she must have looked Amazonian, her mouth twisted into a sharp-toothed smirk.

"Oh. Hello, you don't look terrifying at all." Vincent whimpered gazing up at the fish monster.

Undyne cackled loudly, placing her hands on her hips, "I'll take that as a compliment." she smirked further, to dangerous levels, peering down at Vincent who seemed unable to move or look away. He looked somewhere between enraptured with wonder and fearing for his life.

He nodded mindlessly at her words "Uh huh."

"Hey Undyne." you greeted ignoring your friend's mini freak out.

"Heyya punk, c'mon in." she turned her wild expression to you, stepping out of the doorway to let you two inside.

You walked in dragging Vincent into the house behind you as Undyne wandered off into another room. Looking around the entry hallway you could already tell the place was messier and decorated more like a college dorm room than the outside implied. You slid out of your jacket, holding it uselessly unsure of where to put it. Vincent seemed reluctant to take off his own but you didn't force it, he would warm up to the monsters quickly enough.

"Hey nerds, guess who's finally here!" you heard Undyne call from further into the large home and you followed her voice, Vincent at your heels. 

As you entered the room, you were greeted by a gasp and a blur pulling you into a very sudden, tight hug lifting you just slightly off the ground.

"Oh hey Papyrus. Didn't know you'd be here." You choked out through his grip which he thankfully loosened at your words, allowing you to breathe.

"HELLO MY HUMAN FRIEND, OH AND HELLO SHORT HUMAN FRIEND AS WELL!" Papyrus greeted happily placing you back down on your feet. Vincent grumbled something about being called short but didn't seem too mad because pretty much all of the monsters were so tall it was a losing argument. The only two closer to his height were Alphys and Sans who were each a few inches taller than him.

Speaking of, Alphys seemed to be in a scramble setting up several VHS tapes and DVDs around their large television set and Sans appeared to be asleep on the sofa.

"I WAS MERELY DROPPING OFF MY LAZY BROTHER ALONG WITH SOME SNACKS FOR YOUR FUN VIEWING OF CHILDREN'S CARTOONS." Papyrus started to explain.

"Ugh! They're not kid stuff!" Undyne griped crossing her arms defiantly.

"YES WELL I'VE BEEN INVITED TO A PLAYDATE AT TORIEL'S HOUSE, SO I REALLY MUST BE GOING." Papyrus concluded shrugging off Undyne's interruption. Gabe was taking Morrigan to go play with Frisk while you hung out with the others, Papyrus must have caught wind of the plan and thought it more fun than binge watching anime. You didn't blame him.

"Don't leave me." Vincent whispered quietly, you only heard him because he was standing next to you. He watched Papyrus leave with an anxious expression.

You ruffled his hair to let him know you weren't going to leave him and he was going to be fine. "Bye." you called out to Papyrus on his way out and you swore he 'NYEH'ed in response.

Turning to the others, you decided to introduce the short boy who was now clinging to you from behind, using you as a wall to hide from them. "This is Vincent by the way. Vincent that's Undyne, Alphys, and you've met the sleeping Halloween prop." you said gesturing to each of the monsters as you named them.

Your roommate waved weakly at the group.

"H-h-hello." Alphys waved back similarly suddenly skittish now that she wasn't focused on setting up. You and Undyne looked like two parents trying to talk while their shy children hid behind their legs.

"So what are we watching first?" you asked as Vincent slinked over to the sofa and out of the way.

"O-oh it uh, de-depends. Wh-what do you think l-looks best? I know y-you don't watch much so I g-got out some good be-beginner shows." Alphys answered stuttering as she showed three covers of animes from differing genres.

"Oh my god!" Vincent shot up straight in his seat grabbing a case from Alphys's claws staring down at the cover. "I love this show." Vincent looked up and winced. "Oh... Uh sorry I didn't mean to... Sorry." Vincent muttered offering the case back to Alphys.

Alphys waved her hands frantically "No, no it's ok!" she reassured, "It's a really good one." 

"Uh, well that then." you shrugged not really minding what played.

Undyne had crammed the coffee table full so no inch of surface space was wasted. It was covered in cans of soda, bowls of varying snacks, and even a few plates of cooked food before pulling Alphys on the couch with her. You took up the remaining seat on the long plush couch, again finding yourself sitting next to Sans who still seemed asleep and indifferent to what was going on.

Alphys clutched the remote in her long claw like nails, pressing play allowing the high energy anime intro song to play through the speakers. Undyne wrapped her arms around her girlfriend cuddling into her while Alphys and Vincent both sat on the edge of their seats.

Sans yawned as he woke up stretching slightly, popping his bones as he did. You stared at him, just amazed by the display.

"heh, sorry kiddo tibia honest these ol' bones get a bit creaky."

"How old are you?" you asked before you could stop yourself, curiosity taking over.

"hasn't anyone ever told ya it's not polite to ask a monster his age?" he scolded you jokingly instead of answering.

You pouted causing Sans to frown, "aww c'mon princess don't be that way."

"Nope, you're not calling me princess." you asserted before quickly turning away from him. "So uh what do you guys do?" you asked the couple on the other end of the couch to avoid Sans regaining your attention.

"You're lookin' at the head of security for that research lab by the college where my favorite little nerd works. Tell them about it babe." Undyne grinned widely, radiating pride.

"O-oh I just work on bioengineering and sometimes help out in robotics, its n-nothing really." Alphys blushed burying her face in her hands.

"Oh yeah you're only a super cool scientist opposed to what I do, taking photos, which is clearly far more important." you don't think you've ever eye rolled as hard as you just did. Alphys opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to voice a response before giving up and simply nodding. 

"Hell yeah it's a super cool job babe!" Undyne agreed and Alphys nodded again, this time smiling slightly even though her face had gone red. "You built a robot with scrap and magic Underground, you should be proud. Even if he is a weirdo." 

"Mettaton isn't w-weird... Well at least n-not in a bad way." Alphys muttered defensively. 

"YOU MADE METTATON?!" Vincent all but screeched, pivoting himself to be directly face to face with the little yellow monster. 

Alphys stared back wide-eyed through her thick round glasses, shocked by the shy boy's sudden change. "U-uh yeah, w-well I mean I designed h-his body."

"YOU MADE THAT BEAUTIFUL BODY?!" Vincent squealed happily.

"Ok, down boy that's enough fangirlling." You intervened patting the top of his head to placate him.

"H-he's coming to t-town soon if you w-want to meet him." Alphys offered, smiling.

That seemed to break Vincent, he gasped dramatically and then just kind of froze for a while. He came back to life nodding vigorously. 

After that moment Vincent and Alphys got along amazingly, chattering excitedly back and forth about anime, Mettaton, and computer stuff. The two anxiety ridden nerds seemed to forge an easy and comfortable friendship.

The five of you were burning through a collection of videos and even putting a sizable dent in the mountain of food in front of you. Though the longer the night went on the more bored Undyne seemed. She finally broke, running to the kitchen, and coming back with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and shot glasses in the other. 

"I got a fun idea punks!" Undyne called as she sauntered over, her smirk mischievous and playful. 

"i dunno looks a bit whiskey." Sans said eyeing the alcohol with a smile of his own.

Vincent snickered at the pun while you groaned. You weren't much of a whiskey drinker you stuck to clear liquor mostly, maybe a red wine or mixed drink here or there.

"What kinda idea?" you asked curiously, unsure.

"We throw on a trash show and drink whenever they talk over a still shot instead of animating the scene." Undyne explained already setting the shot glasses in front of each of you.

"Oh uh, I d-don't know if that's the b-best idea." Alphys worried chewing on her bottom lip.

"Aw come on Alph it'll be awesome." Undyne pecked a kiss on her forehead, silencing the scientist's worries.

"Hey it'll be like when we get trashed and knock on old movies." Vincent said, eyeing you imploringly. 

"Yeah ok, sure." you agree with a sigh.

Sans just shrugs but he didn't fight the idea.

Alphys got up and scurried across the room to switch out the disc for an older, more beat up VHS tape. Sans stretched out trying to claim more of the couch bumping against you in the process. You turned your head to look at him questioningly.

"what, not gonna scoot over for a friend?

"Are we friends?" you asked genuinely unsure.

He shrugged again, "i guess that's up to you pal."

You scooted over slightly giving him a bit more room, you weren't able to spare much with all five of you on the couch though. You smiled to yourself, not really watching the show anymore.

Undyne pointed enthusiastically at the screen “Shots!” she announced eagerly reaching over to the coffee table grabbing her shot glass raising it dramatically and downing it, hissing only slightly.

The rest of you followed suit, Alphys taking her own hesitantly cringing as she drank it. Vincent's reaction was no better than the lizard monster's. Sans seemed languid and indifferent with his own. You grabbed your own shot glass off the table, shrugging before you simply downed the light amber liquid. It was sweet, a bit like toffee, but mingled with the unmistakable taste of alcohol that burnt your throat. 

"easy princess." Sans cooed as he watched you wince at the taste and burn.

"Yeah, we're still not calling me princess." you rolled your eyes at the nickname.

You and Sans weren't even watching the show anymore. The two of you just mindlessly reaching for your glasses whenever Undyne called out for shots like it was a personal competition. The group chatter became muffled as you focused in on your banter with the skeleton.

You reached for more popcorn finding the bowl empty. "Imma make s'more." you said out loud whether or not anyone was listening. You stood, taking the bowl with you. You stumble for a second, stopping to balance yourself, willing your wobbly legs into submission. 

Finally you found your way into the kitchen, glad that you immediately saw the box on the counter. You smiled at the box. "Well hello there." you greeted the box, willing to admit to yourself that you were a bit tipsy. Pulling out a bag, ripping the plastic off of it, and tossing into the microwave you hummed to yourself. You spun around, with the intention of leaning against the counter as the popcorn popped, instead you found yourself falling. The movement was too quick for your numb legs to keep up with, but you never hit the floor. Instead you felt a body at your back with arms wrapped around you. Due to their height you assumed it was Vincent until you looked down to see a pair of skeletal hands all but cupping your breast.

Unable to stop yourself you burst out in a fit of laughter because all you could think was, "It looks like my shirt now!"

At your words you were suddenly dropped as Sans quickly ripped his hands away. His cheek bones glowed light blue, and you think he may have muttered out an apology for dropping you, but you weren't sure. You let yourself just lay on the floor for a moment as you collected yourself and let your laughter die down. 

Raising a hand straight into the air, giving a thumbs up you said "I'm alright."  You reached out latching onto the first stable thing you came in contact with which happened to be the cabinets. You pulled up hauling yourself off the ground. Sans quickly offered a boney hand, seeing as you were having some difficulty. "Nah I got it, don't worry 'bout me." You declined as you forced yourself up.

You blinked trying to force yourself to focus, your mind just the slightest bit hazy. Everything felt dimmer, warmer than normal, but you couldn’t focus on that now. Sans was watching you with an amused look on his face.

"What's the matter bone boy? Never seen someone fall so gracefully?" you questioned sarcastically.

Sans snorted "oh yeah, i was floored."

Despite yourself you found yourself laughing at that pun. "Your humor is clearly wasted in the food industry." you retorted.

"eh, i save my good material for the planetarium." Sans shrugged.

"You work at the planetarium? I fucking love that place! God, I haven't gone in forever." you gushed remembering the college nights you spent at the domed building homesick for starry nights. "Wait how many jobs do you have anyway?" 

"mostly just the two, the cart is more of a weekends thing." he answered appearing indifferent, yet he seemed a bit sheepish. "you should swing by sometime." he offered.

You were about to answer when the microwave's beeping interrupted your train of thought. "Ooo, popcorns done." you said instead grabbing the treat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys your comments really keep this thing alive, I am also so happy to hear from you!


	14. Budding Anger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so close to some of the bigger more plot heavy chapters that sit in the middle of this fic and I'm so excited!  
> Remember your comments keep me from freaking out abandoning stories I love working on ;)

It was a dumb idea to get drunk on a Sunday night you thought in retrospect as you touched base with everyone in the morning. You, Undyne, and Sans were fine but you know Alphys called into work sick and Vincent was currently locked in his room sleeping off a hangover.

Sans texted you randomly throughout your day at work. From the texts you got the theme seemed to be whenever a pun popped into his head. You didn't mind as much as you probably should have, your day was slow and work dragged on without many customers. Your shift was wrapping up though, thankfully. Your phone buzzed again, which it did much more often now, and you felt yourself smiling in anticipation for a text from one of your friends. It felt nice to say that word as a plural now.

When you looked at your screen however you saw your brother's familiar picture instead of one of the monsters' numbers. Sure that he was at work you wondered why he would be texting you. You pressed through to the message and read it.

'Yo sis, Toriel just called me cause Morri left her scarf at their place. I'm in the middle of a huge back tat, can you go pick it up for me?'

You shook your head letting out an amused sigh and responded 'Ya sure, soon as I clock out.'

'Sweet. You're the best.' came the next message and you pocketed your phone.

-

You found yourself again standing in front of Toriel's cottage style house out in the suburbs. In the day light you noticed a neat and orderly little garden trimmed the walls and a bike tucked around the corner leaning up against the house. It felt like the image you would see on the front of a post card that guilt tripped with home sickness even when your home was never that picturesque.

You knocked on the door and heard the shuffling of feet from inside. The door opened and you had to look down. You were expecting Toriel, but instead Frisk beamed up at you.

"Oh hey there Frisk." you smiled back at the child. She waved gleefully and beckoned you inside.

"Oh, it's ok I just came to pick up Morrigan's scarf. I don't want to intrude." you answered unsure of just barging in.

Frisk shook her head and motioned you inside again.

"You sure? Cause I don't want to bother your mom." you asked your defences weakening. You cursed your soft spot for kids.

Frisk huffed and ran inside the house leaving you in the doorway. You stood there awkwardly for a moment. You were about to just follow her in when she came back with Toriel behind her, hand in hand.

"Oh hello there, I was expecting Gabriel." Toriel tilted her head with a small smile on her snout. "Not that it isn't nice to see you." she added.

"He was busy." you shrugged.

"I see. Why don't you come in, I was just about to bake a pie." Toriel asked and Frisk nodded encouragingly.

"You sure I won't be in the way?" you asked a final time, finding it hard to hold onto your doubts under both of their efforts to ensure you.

"No, no, it is no trouble. You can help if you wish." Toriel lead you into the house, her hand placed reassuringly on your shoulder.

"Actually, that sounds like fun." you nodded.

-

Toriel's kitchen was already laid out with what looks like everything you would need to make a couple of pies from scratch. Looking around you saw that her fridge was covered in drawings, you saw a few of them were different from most. Examining closer you noticed most of them were signed 'Frisk' but others had things like 'To Miss Dreemurr' written on them. They must be from students. You smiled to yourself about how sweet it was that Toriel would put the student's gifts up along side her own child's. You figured she was probably a great teacher.

"You know I used to bake a lot with my mom." you started spinning around looking at the ingredients laying on the counter in front of you. Toriel had this effect on you, something about her made you want to open up. "My dad was the cook in the house, but baking was always just me and mom." you smiled at the memory.

"Oh? That sounds fun." Toriel smiled pleasantly picking up the large mixing bowl. "Are you and your mother close?"

You frowned for a moment, "Yeah I guess. I mean she lives across the country." you shrugged. "Her and dad still run the ranch in Arizona."

"Oh dear, sometimes I forget how far apart things can be up here on the surface." Toriel admitted, pausing in her mixing to look up at you. Her smile was small and sad.

"It's not too bad, I still visit them. They even come up to the city sometimes!" you assured the gentle monster.

"How did you ever get so far separated from your family?" She asked tentatively returning to the mixing bowl.

"Oh, well I went to college up here. Actually it's the one by the lab where Alphys works." you explained remembering your friends talking about their jobs last night. "And I just kind of stayed, I really like it here." you smiled pouring milk into the mixture. "Don't get me wrong I miss them a lot sometimes, but it's not like I don't have family here."

"Ah right, your brother. Did he come here for schooling as well?" Toriel questioned.

"Heh, no he didn't go to college actually, Sar-" you frowned and stopped all motion. You let your guard down and now the conversation some how found it's way back to that bitch. "No. He had other reasons." you spoke coldly hoping Toriel would be kind enough to let it drop. She had gotten you to talk about the past and you nearly let out what you and your brother have being bottling up for six long years.

"Oh was it a girl then? Young love is fickle that way. I have been there myself you kn-"

Your hands slapped down on the counter stinging your palms slightly. You stared down at your hands, watching the small cloud of flour you caused to shoot up settle around them. "Stop! Just... Don't. Please?"

Toriel watched you worriedly, her features contrite. She looked as though she wanted to reach out, comfort you in some way, but she couldn't find the words.

Frisk ran into the room, it seemed like she had been outside. Her clothes were a little dirty and she had a handful of wild flowers. Toriel's tension seemed to evaporate when she had something to focus on, so she turned to Frisk. "Oh my, are those for me?" She asked the child.

Frisk eyed you for a moment, watching you quickly pull yourself back together, repressing memories once again. Frisk then snapped her attention back to her mother with a nod and grin that appeared more childish and innocent than the questioning stare she gave you.

You watched the moment fondly, it seemed so natural for them. These pure little moments warmed your heart, but made you feel like you were intruding. You sighed deeply feeling a bit better after being given a minute on your own to collect yourself. "Oh that's awesome, nobody has ever given me flowers before. You're so lucky Toriel." You said finding you didn't even have to force a smile this time to slide back into your normal patterns. 

"Oh dear, that's a shame. I'm sure it will happen at some point." Toriel assured you with a more comfortable smile. 

Frisk nodded and signed something to you.

"Frisk," Toriel giggled "we've talked about this."

"What?" You asked, curious.

"Frisk was suggesting that she would bring you flowers because 'Cute girls deserve flowers'" Toriel used air quotes.

You laughed and the the little flirt beamed with pride. "Don't waste that talent on me kid, that kinda smoothness deserves a better target."

"Don't encourage her." Toriel laughed, and Frisk winked at you.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket and you apologized as you pulled it out to look at the message.

'hey i know you were a bit wasted and you might want some space but i was wondering if you still thought it'd be outta this world to go to the planetarium.' Sans texted you and your eyes lit up, you had all but forgotten that conversation. You were excited to see the planetarium again, especially with someone who actually enjoyed space, unlike in college where stoned kids just went to see the laser shows.

'Ya, I'm starry eyed just thinking about it.' you texted back, slowly giving in to texting puns, but only because you knew how much Vincent and Sans enjoyed them.

'sounds like a party, i'll be sure to planet ;)'


	15. Out of This World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey! New chapter hope you guys like it!   
> Feedback means a lot to me so I love it when you guys comment.

You hopped off the bus folding up the newspaper you were reading. Typically newspapers weren't your thing bit Gabriel proudly presented this one to you. It had a photo you hadn't seen before. It showed a group of kids in front of the school with Morrigan and Frisk dead center in the image.

It was mostly about the tiny ambassador and Asgore, the former monster king, mostly acting on her behalf pushing forward monster inclusion acts. The city tended to be more monster friendly but not all places had the same mindset.

Either way, you now found yourself in front of the planetarium and checked the time on your phone. It was dark because of how quickly night falls during this time of year, yet it wasn't overly late. The lights in the large domed building were still on, but there weren't many people you could see going in or out. You walked in and saw the small gift shop area housed in the front of the building hasn't changed much since the last time you've been inside it. You sent Sans a quick text letting him know you were there while you wandered around the small entrance shop. The girl behind the counter, who looked college age at best, watched you impatiently. She huffed and popped her gum loudly while you looked at the kid's science sets. You wondered what the hell her deal was. 

"Hey, uh, can you ring this up for me?" You asked her when something caught your eye for Morrigan.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes snatching the box from you as if you were wasting her time.

"Could you be a bit easier on that box, it's for my niece." You said holding yourself back from saying something meaner. She was young, probably near the end of her shift, she might just be tired and eager to leave. That mantra kept you calm enough to not call her a bitch.

"I really don't care, that'll be 24.99." She replied not looking back up at you instead she kept her eyes leveled at the register and held out her hand.

At this point you no longer cared how stressful her day had been, she was being horrible and nothing was going to stop you from telling her that. "Listen you bi-"

"oh hey there you are." Sans called to you from the other end of the counter cutting off your forming rant. 

The girl's demeanor completely changed. She still couldn't care less about your existence, but her stance went from stand-offish and snobby to what you think was supposed to be flirtatious. "Hi Sans." She gave him a little wave.

"hey kathy," he answered back absent mindedly, almost entirely ignoring her as he stepped closer to you. "that for the kid or you still in the 'five and up' age range?" he asked you pointing at the science set.

"Ha ha, real funny. Of course, it's for Morrigan." You answered him rolling your eyes.

Kathy huffed again, looking very displeased that she was not receiving more attention and tried again. She leaned against the counter and tapped Sans's shoulder. "I was just clocking out if you want to go grab a coffee or something." She suggested, her eyes imploring.

"can't kath, i'm taking my friend here on a vip tour, she's a real star." Sans wrapped his hand around you.

"Star? That's the best you can do for space puns?" you asked the short skeleton incredulously. 

"i'm just getting started, remember that you asked for it." Sans chuckled and you groaned knowing that you had just doomed yourself to a night of puns. Sans withdrew his arm from around you and nodded his head towards the main doors.

Once you were comfortably out of earshot from Kathy you asked Sans "Is she always like that?"

"what the flirting?" he asked back tilting his head. "you jealous?" his near permanent smile morphing into a cocky smirk.

"Oh yes, I'm overcome with jealousy. How will I ever go on?" You commented back sarcastically.

He laughed, more than one of his quick chuckles that he does often, but a full on laugh that you found yourself proud to have caused. "i'm sorry that i didn't understand the gravity of the situation."

"Are we really doing this?" you groaned at the joke.

"what i thought it was stellar."

"Stop." You whined half seriously.

"don't be so sirius." he continued, easily ignoring you.

"What will it take to make you stop?" you asked.

"hmmm." He stopped for a moment in thought. "i'll give 'em a break, if you say one."

"Ugh, really making me swallow my pride here aren't you?" 

Sans simply nodded.

You sighed dramatically. "So I heard you were crazy about the moon, I always knew you were a luna-tic." you said as drily as you could. 

Sans smile widened, he looked almost proud of you. 

"We good now?" you muttered trying to keep from smiling.

"for now." he agreed and continued walking. "c'mon i wanna show you the command center." 

"Is it actually called that or do you just like to feel as though your job is more important than it really is?" You asked jokingly.

Sans placed his hand over his heart, or where his heart would have been, in mock offence. "rude." He scoffed leading you through a side door in the hallway taking you to a separate room that overlooked the main domed space of the planetarium. The office was mostly taken up by a large desk that held three different computer monitors and several control boards. 

"Wow, ok so command center. Got it." You nodded looking at the equipment.

"it looks much more intimidating than it actually is." Sans shrugged dropping into the swivel chair facing the desk.

"If you say so, but I'd still be terrible at it. Trust me, computer stuff is Vincent's thing." You said, looking at the complicated setup and hundreds of buttons on the console.

He rolled his shoulder bones in a shrug and let out a small chuckle. "yeah well computers weren't really my thing at first either."

He pressed some buttons, in an order that looked random to you, but the main projector in the viewing room whirred to life. You stood awed watching as he easily manipulated the other room from his seat, lowering the lights and displaying your galaxy on the ceiling. He was engulfed in his task and flicked one hand into the air. You thought at first he was calling you over until you saw a large binder floating towards him enveloped in a light blue haze.

"Holy fuck! Are you doing that?" the words stumbled out of your mouth causing Sans to flinch. The glow around the binder disappeared and it fell to the floor with a thud.

He turned around slowly looking almost sheepish. You knew monsters were magic but you really haven't seen anyone use it. You guessed it was more minor stuff or maybe something more elemental you didn't know that they had fucking superpowers!

"uh, yeah?" he answered. His voice sounded like he was trying to cover up nervousness, but there was something else that you couldn't quite identify. 

"That's fucking awesome!" you cheered excitedly.

"heh not too weird for you?" he asked not looking at you as he collected the binder manually.

Your face fell and you schooled it into a serious expression, one that Gabriel had dubbed 'your bitch face'. "Monsters literally became a real thing two years ago and I'm having a conversation with a high school anatomy figure, but no, this is where you expect me to draw the 'weird line'?" you crossed your arms and stared at him.

Sans slowly looked back up at you his eye sockets wide, and then he immediately burst into laughter. "hell i guess you got me there princess."

You groaned at the nickname to try and cover up the smile that broke out across your face. "Stop with the princess thing already." 

Sans held his hands up in mock surrender but you doubted the nickname would die that easily.

"So can all of you guys do that?" you asked, unable to hold back the questions bubbling up inside of you.

"do what?"

"The floaty thing!"

"ah yes 'floaty thing', i believe that's the scientific term for it." Sans smirked sitting back down in the chair.

"Yeah, yeah telekinesis. I do actually know what it's called, excuse me for getting caught up in the moment. Can all monsters do that?" You rolled your eyes and asked again to get him to stop dodging the question.

"uh no, not really? all monsters kind of have their own thing, a lot of it is much more minor stuff. some things are more common than others. the 'floaty thing'" he chuckled as he used the term again. "is more rare, i don't know anyone else who can use it to the degree i can." Sans gestured when he explained things. You were really starting to notice he would move his hands or shrug a lot when he was talking about certain things.

You couldn't help but be reminded of the superhero shows and comics that you and Gabriel enjoyed as children. You are filled with the nostalgia of pretending to have powers and play fighting with your brother who for your sake always took up the title of villain so you could save the day. 

"so do i have to give a whole dissertation on magic or can we get back to the show?" Sans teased playfully gesturing to the large ceiling where he was currently displaying some of the constellations. 

"Yeah I guess random balls of gas in the sky are just as cool as real life magic." you teased back, moving towards the wide window to stare up at the ceiling. It was almost as amazing as actual star gazing and it took your breath for a moment. "Goddamn space is so cool." you said under your breath.

You heard Sans chuckle as he switched the display. "you know any of 'em?"

"The constellations?" you asked and Sans nodded. "I know some of the basic ones. I can point out the dippers, Orion, a couple of the star signs." you shrugged.

He pointed up towards the middle of the display. "whadda 'bout that one?" he drew out the shape with his finger. 

Your eyebrows furrowed and you shook your head, it didn't look familiar to you. "Nope, which one is it?" 

"i think this one should really hit home with you. you should comet it to memory." he winked and pressed a few buttons and lines connected the stars on the ceiling. "that's andromeda, daughter of cassiopeia the queen."

Sans went silent giving you a moment to work out what he said. "Did you just indirectly call me princess again?" you asked whipping around to face him shocked and slightly annoyed.

"heh, maybe."

You rolled your eyes but found yourself smiling. "That's the only one I'll let slide." you looked back up at the ceiling. "Have you ever actually seen them? I mean like without all the light pollution of the city?" you asked quietly.

"...no."

"I promise to take you. One day soon. You deserve to see the real stars." you turned back to Sans with a huge smile on your face. You meant that.

Sans set the machine to play a loop of the swirling cosmos with some music playing lightly over the speakers. The two of you made your way out of the office and into the auditorium. Sans had lead you to what he claimed were the 'best seats in the house' and the two of you reclined back and just stared for a while with matching expressions of awe. 

"So how did you get so interested in space? I mean, you've lived underground away from the stars basically your whole life how did you even know about..." you were at a loss for how to describe your thoughts and instead just gestured at the ceiling vaguely.

You could hear Sans sigh from beside you and he frowned for a moment. "i had books and we had a room in the underground... it was a lot like here. stones sparkled on the ceiling and it was the closest thing we had to stars."

"If that wasn't so sad, it would sound really cool." you said turning your head away from the lights above you to look at Sans. He was still staring at the ceiling but you saw him shrug at your words. "Ok so no talking about the Underground..." you mused out loud seeing as he didn't seem to enjoy the subject. "So can I ask you more questions about monsters and magic?" you asked hopefully.

Sans did turn to look at you then. "really? you're real nosy aren't you?" he teased.

"How do you expect me not to ask about it if nobody explains it to me?" you whined imploringly.

"ask tori, she's a teacher. she has more patience for kids than i do."

"I'm not a kid, and I asked you." 

Sans's expression softened "fine, fine. you win princess."

You ignored the nickname because he had given you an opportunity to appease your curious nature. "How did you keep messing up my photos that day at the park?" you could easily launch into a landslide of questions about logistics but honestly that was still bothering you and it seemed more relevant.

Sans lifted his left hand and wiggled his fingers. "magic." he announced in a hushed voice.

"That's going to be your answer no matter what I ask isn't in?"

Sans shrugged but the pleased look on his face told you that he was not going to take this seriously.

"c'mon it's getting kinda late. i gotta get home to paps." Sans stood and offered his hand to help you up.

"Oh my, what a gentleman, going to walk me home too?" you asked sarcastically taking his hand and using it as leverage to get up.

"ya sure why not." he answered your joke seriously. 

You stuttered for a moment unsure how to respond to that. "No really, you don't have to we live in different directions, it'll take you forever to get home. I'll be fine." You assured in a flustered manner.

"na, i know a shortcut. you trust me don't cha?" he asked, shrugging off your concern.

That made you pause. You did trust him, you trusted him a lot. When did that happen? You nodded, "Yeah, I do."

His smile widened. "good, then let's go."

You followed behind him as he shut off the computer system and locked up the building leaving you both standing outside the building in the cold. At least the street lamps and other varying light sources made sure that it wasn't too dark. 

"Sans-" you started, again ready to tell him not to worry about it.

"you're my friend and i want to make sure you make it home ok. you're not being a burden." Sans interrupted, knowing what you were going to say.

"Right." you nodded feeling a bit better. "Sorry," you felt the need to apologize "It's just this thing that's ingrained in me, I don't like being in the way."

"don't worry 'bout it. now c'mon, i'm chilled to the bone out here." Sans joked and started walking down the sidewalk.

You rolled your eyes at the pun but followed him anyway. "Really? We're back to puns?" you said, truly only half annoyed.

Sans chuckled, clearly amused. "what can i say, they tickle my funny bone."

"Ha ha ha." you fake laughed.

"what you don't find them humerus?"

"I think you're a numbskull." you muttered back in response. 

"down here." Sans indicated to an upcoming alleyway. 

"You sure about that?" you asked skeptically.

"c'mon where's all that trust from earlier." he teased.

You hesitated for a moment, but followed him anyway. As soon as you crossed the threshold to the alley you found that you and Sans were turning the corner to your apartment building. This took a long time for you to process, you looked behind you but the street you were just on had vanished and been replaced. Sans watched you stumble as your brain tried to catch up with what was going on, amusement evident.

"How?" you asked simply.

"magic." he answered back repeating the spirit fingers gesture from earlier.


	16. The Grillby Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I'm pretty sure this is the weakest chapter I'm so sorry, but the next chapter is going to be BIG guys!

"We're only going to Grillby's because Vincent's got a big gay crush." You informed Gabriel as if the birthday boy wasn't right next to you on the side walk.

Gabriel chuckled and ruffled Vincent's hair, much to the shorter man's dismay.

"Stooop." he whined batting away the hand.

"Don't be so embarrassed." Gabriel wrapped an arm around Vincent, pulling him in close.

"I'm not embarrassed!" Vincent spluttered unconvincingly. "It's just... Don't say that when we get there."

"What afraid we're going to scare him away?" you teased.

"No! I just don't want him to find out from someone else!" Vincent insisted pulling away from Gabriel.

"Fine, fine." you held up your hands in surrender.

"Dunno if this guy is as cute as you say I might have to throw my hat into the ring." Gabriel joked, winking at the shorter man.

"Nooooooooo." Vincent whined over dramatically.

You slapped your brothers arm, "Don't pick on him too hard it's his birthday." you scolded lightly.

"Yeah!" he stuck out his tongue childishly.

Gabriel stuck his tongue out in return, but he still relented.

The three of you turned the corner, on to the road where Grillby's was. You could see Vincent get visibly more nervous the closer to the door he got. As all of you froze as you reached the restaurant. The brick building was marred with fresh spray paint. Someone had written 'GO BACK TO YOUR HOLE FREAKS' over the doorway. Gabriel and Vincent stared lost for words and you could feel your blood boil.

"Fucking assholes." you growled glaring at the words.

Gabriel pulled you inside before you properly lose your shit, "Don't let it get to you." he comforted.

"I just hate that shit." you grumbled.

Vincent poked you causing you to look over to him. Once he saw that he had your attention he smiled, "Don't let a random jerk ruin our day, everybody here seems fine."

"Ugh, that's worse! They shouldn't have to be used to it and be fine that it happened." you crossed your arms but you felt yourself losing steam. Not because it didn't matter, but because you knew getting mad would only make you feel worse.

The three of you weaved through the crowd and found a table to sit at. You thrummed your fingers, nails clacked against the wooden surface in an agitated way still a bit on edge. Gabriel sighed and offered the small box he had been carrying to Vincent.

"Happy birthday Vinny." he offered trying to shift the mood.

Vincent took the gift smiling thankfully at the other man, you don't know if it was a thanks for the gift or a thanks for the change of topic.

Vincent opened the present, ripping at the clumsily taped together wrapping paper, revealing a 3ds game. "Is this the new pokemon game?"

"Yeah and I got the other version so we can trade and stuff." Gabriel smiled.

"Dude that's awesome! Thanks."

"Oh here I got you something too." You slid the gift bag across the table finally rejoining the happier mood of the group.

"Oooo, I love presents!" Vincent's eyes glowed joyously as he reached out for the new gift. He pulled the brightly colored tissue paper away and gingerly lifted the large round stuffed cat from the bag.

He stared at it for a long time without speaking. You and Gabriel shared a confused look before he called out again. "His name shall be Lord Higgenbottom!" Vincent announced hugging the toy close to him.

"Oh and part two of me being an amazing best friend, we're going to Frisk's first soccer game of the season tomorrow." you smirked.

"Why is that so amazing?" Vincent questioned.

"Because I heard that Mettaton is going to be there." you sing-songed.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" His eyes widened and he clutched the toy cat tighter.

Gabriel chuckled, shaking his head. "Of course never mind the child's first game, it's all about your celebrity idolization."

Vincent pouted "Don't make me feel bad about it."

Gabriel rolled his eyes but smiled and said no more on the issue. "You hungry?"

"Starving." Vincent answered.

"C'mon let's go order at the bar. I think I've seen a waitress, but this way you can say hi to the monster of your dreams." you teased standing and pulling Vincent up with you.

"Get me a burger, I'll stay here and hold the table." Gabriel told you.

"Oh uh... Ok we're doing this." Vincent muttered to himself placing the cat toy down on his chair. "Guard my spot Lord Higgenbottom." he told the toy.

You rolled your eyes. "While I'm young and beautiful Vinny."

"I think that time has already passed." Gabriel quipped back at you from the table.

You flipped him off as you walked away, Vincent tentatively following behind you. Before you reached the counter, you faced Vincent with a serious expression.

"You have to say something, compliment him, anything. We're not leaving until you do."

"Why must you do these things to me?" Vincent griped with a mixture of fear and annoyance in his eyes.

"'Cause if I don't you would never talk to people." you rolled your eyes walking past him to the counter waiting for Grillby to notice you.

The flame monster stood in front of you and silently waited for you order. You glanced over at Vincent who was chewing his nails and trying to look anywhere except Grillby. You rolled your eyes and ordered for your table. Grillby nodded and wandered back into the kitchen.

"Go sit down Vinny you have 45 minutes before I compliment him and we leave." You nudged him, figuring you'd have to use some tough love to get him to open up a bit. He grumbled and dejectedly walked back to the table.

The rest of lunch Vincent was quiet, trying to pull the courage together to talk to his crush. He didn't look as though he was any closer to doing it though. You sighed "Ok times up." you announced getting up to go pay. You didn't really notice when Vincent stood up a few moments after you.

You smiled at Grillby who was wiping off the counter. "Hey man I really like your outfit. Looks good on you."

Before Grillby could even look up, Vincent's voice rang out loudly from behind you. "FUCK IT!" he screamed and ran away.

You looked after him, extremely confused and then back to Grillby who appeared equally unsure of what was going on. He looked at you questioningly.

"Yeah uh, he's real shy but thinks you look great too." you attempted to smooth over the situation, paying for the meal. Grillby shrugged, leaving for a moment and coming back with a receipt. You smiled and nodded before turning away to fast walk out of the bar.

Just outside you could see Gabriel doubled over with laughter and Vincent consumed with regret and embarrassment.

"What the hell was that?" you demanded.

"Well you got up and it made me realize you were gonna compliment him instead and I didn't want you to so I got up to do it before you and you said what I was gonna say before I could say it and I freaked out and my mouth was already open to say it so I said what I thought instead and got embarrassed and ran away." Vincent rambled wide-eyed and traumatized.

This made Gabriel laugh harder. You tried to hold back your own laughter but couldn't quite manage it. "I'm sorry that's horrible but hilarious." you said trying to stifle yourself.

Vincent groaned hiding himself in his jacket.

You looked down at the receipt in your hand noticing the writing on the back. You flipped the slip of paper completely over to read it. The writing turned out to be a phone number. "Hey Vincent, I think this is for you." you said handing him the paper.

"What?" he asked eyebrows furrowed together as he took the slip from you spotting the number. "Are you sure, it might be for you."

You shrugged. "Eh, either way I'm giving it to you. I'm still pretty sure it was meant for you anyway."

"What if it's for me." Gabriel asked teasingly.

"Oh shut up Gabe."

Vincent's eyes lit up as he stared down at the phone number.

"You must be using some serious birthday luck, because in my experience yelling at people isn't the best ice breaker." Gabriel said ignoring you.


	17. Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ok SO I know this is a day or so late but it's also a longer chapter so I hope that makes up for it!  
> Please leave whatever feedback you have I love reading all of you comments!

Morrigan clutched at your hand as she skipped towards the field behind the school. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, the late afternoon sky becoming hazy purples and oranges. Thick rolling clouds drifting slowly across the colorful expanse. Morrigan's scarf and heavy jacket bounced with her as she pranced across the grass, billowing behind her in the chilly breeze.

"Guys the game's gonna start soon." Vincent voiced his concern, walking briskly towards the stands that were filling up with a crowd of parents.

"You're just worried about your iron idol." Gabriel rolled his eyes, strolling easily behind you, hands in his pockets.

"His steel star?" You smirked joining in on the slight teasing.

"His revered robot." Gabriel smirked.

"You two are the worst!" Vincent groaned.

You and Gabriel broke out into laughter. "Ok, ok. Sorry Vinny." You smiled at your best friend who huffed childishly. "I'm sure it'll be fine." You said more sincerely.

"Or maybe he'll be a stuck up diva." Gabriel shrugged.

"Or maybe he'll be really nice!" Vincent dreamily countered.

"Ah Vincent, my sweet summer child, your optimism is adorable." Gabe sighed in fake reverence, eyes twinkling playfully.

"As much as I love this banter that's going on right now, it's a little to late to discuss the pros and cons." You interrupted and gestured to where the robot stood, more like posed, with your friends.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuck that's him what am I suppose to do? What do I say?" Vincent snapped out of his thought.

Gabriel clamped his hands over Morrigan's ears. "Dude, there are kids here."

Vincent flushed with embarrassment "Sorry." he muttered.

"Yo punks!" Undyne yelled across the crowd waving you over exuberantly.

You grabbed Vincent by the arm hauling him with you towards her with Gabriel taking your place holding Morrigan's hand. The group consisted of Undyne, Alphys, Toriel, Papyrus, and the pink and black robot himself.

"Hey guys, wow just about everyone showed up huh? This is basically everyone I know" you said to the group laughing softly.

"YEAH PUNK WE ALL TRY TO SHOW UP FOR FRISK'S FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON!" Undyne roared ripping you away from Vincent and into a vice grip of a side hug.

"EVERYONE MADE IT THIS TIME EXCEPT SANS AND ASGORE WHO HAS MANY IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO AT WORK!" Papyrus happily added with just as much noisy enthusiasm as Undyne.

It was about then that Sans casually strolled over with a large soda in one hand and a hotdog in the other. "what work? na it's not that important."

"SANS! I WASN'T TALKING ABOUT YOU, YOU LAZYBONES!" Papyrus stomped and huffed, crossing his arms affronted. 

Sans simply shrugged at his brother's outburst and sipped from his straw. 

"Well I'm glad you made it Sans, Frisk loves your support." Toriel smiled at him. "Oh and I see you're supporting the concession stand as well." she joked lightly.

"hey don't hate on the 'dog tori." 

Toriel chuckled covering her mouth as she did so. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Frisk darling you make that uniform work!" Mettaton called out to where the child was out on the field with her team. He had apparently been distracted by the young ambassador and not paying attention to the conversation.

"Oh right Shorty! You wanted to meet the bucket of bolts right?" Undyne asked Vincent as if she was just reminded of both of their existences.

"Th-that's not n-nice Un-undyne." Alphys muttered.

Mettaton turned around, his pink eyes glowing unnaturally and mechanically. They rested on you, Vincent, and Gabriel. "Oh darling are these lovely's your new little friends?"

"W-well" Alphys started but Mettaton kept talking as if she never spoke up.

"Oh would you look at the little one!? How adorable!" He gushed.

Vincent blushed growing flustered until Mettaton crouched to be face to face with Morrigan. "Aren't you precious?" Mettaton cooed at your niece. Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"Oh... Yeah that makes sense... Ok." Vincent mumbled proceeding to hide himself in his jacket. You patted him reassuringly on his back, holding back a laugh.

"You're that actor that Uncle Vinny likes!" Morrigan declared her eyes lighting up with recognition. "Imma actor too! Imma be in a play real soon!" She smiled eagerly bouncing on her toes.

"I bet you'll be fabulous darling," He patted her hair gently as he stood up fluidly, careful not to mess up her hair. "and what is this I hear about a fan?" He smiled widely looking up.

You not so subtly nodded you head towards your cowering best friend.

Mettaton's eyes glint happily. "No need to hide darling." he sing-songed at your friend.

Vincent whined and peeked out from his jacket, "H-hi." he waved weakly. 

After the initial awkwardness the group feel into a fun conversation and cheers once the game started. You and Gabriel broke off from the group after a bit to get food for everyone but you never made it to the stand. 

"Oh hello Gabriel." Came a sickeningly sweet voice from behind you and your brother. It was so familiar you could feel your skin crawl. 

It was her, a voice you hadn't heard in years, one that plagued you throughout high school. You turned and there she was. It was Sarah, Gabriel's old girlfriend. You and your brother turned, seemingly unable to do much else. You wanted to say that Sarah was as ugly on the outside as she was on the inside, that it was obvious what she was. You wished she had obnoxiously dyed blonde hair and cold eyes, you wished she was marred with plastic surgery. She wasn't though. She looked pleasant and friendly with her long red hair, freckles, and innocent wide eyes. Gabriel stood frozen staring into the face of his nightmares, hand absent mindedly covering the scar on his arm. Just behind her stood a man who looked out of place at the school event, he was older, maybe in his forties. He sneered at you. 

"Hold my purse." Sarah told the man without looking back at him. 

The man deflated and took the offered purse with a soft "Yes dear."

"Why are you here?" Gabriel managed to get out, turning to make sure Morrigan was still distracted cheering her friend on. 

"I heard my precious Moreen was in town, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't come to see her?" Sarah asked innocently as if she had visited at all since she left. 

"Her name is Morrigan and you aren't her mother, you've never been a mother to her." Gabriel growled, usual calm demeanor slipping.

"I-I..." You stuttered looking from where your niece and the monsters where blissfully unaware of your struggle, to Sarah and her taunting smile. "I can't be here." You muttered pushing past her and your brother, just jogging away from the situation. You couldn't look back and you didn't know where you were going. 

You could hear Gabriel yell your name and your friends voicing concern and confusion, but it didn't stop you. It was quickly growing dark but that didn't stop you either. You left and your feet had lead you blindly to an apartment building. Soon you recognized where you had subconsciously brought yourself. Chandler's apartment building. Sighing deeply you rang the buzzer for her place, hoping desperately that she was home.

"Hey?" Chandler's voice rang out from the tinny speaker. 

"Chandler? It's me..." You answered back holding down the button. "I uh... need a place to calm down." 

The door made a buzzing noise followed by a click of it being unlatched. You sighed thankfully, still teeming with nerves. Quickly you made your way past the entrance and up the stairs to your work friend's floor, beating on the door a bit too harshly when you got to it.

Chandler flung her door open, smile dropping when she saw the state you were in. "Hey dude, what's wrong?" 

You shook your head "Don't wanna talk, I need to... What's the least nerdy way to ask to smoke with you?" 

Chandler laughed at that "Come in." she smiled comfortingly walking back into her house leaving you to follow her lead. Inside a tv flickered, seemingly long since forgotten, and that orange cat monster who worked at the mall lazily sprawled in an arm chair. "Yo, B.P., you've met right?" Chandler gestured to you as she dug into a shelf for her stash. 

"Oh yeah, hey buddy." The orange monster, B.P., answered back smiling lopsidedly at you. You waved back, uncharacteristically timid. 

"Take a sit dude, you look freaked." Chandler suggested coming back from the shelf with a small wooden box in her hands.You sat on the couch, pulling your bag into your lap. 

"I am 'freaked'" you answered, voice tittering somewhere between a bit too harsh and wrecked with nerves. 

"Whoa dude chill," she smiled in a calming way, opening the box pulling out a glass pipe with red and orange colors twisting through it. "When was the last time you smoked?" she asked thankfully not prying into why you suddenly decided to join in on her hobby. 

"Like once or twice in college." you answered back trying to take relaxing breaths. 

"You know how to hit a pipe?" She questioned packing the pipe and holding a hand out to B.P. who dug into his jean pocket procuring a lighter and handing it to her. Chandler brought the pipe and lighter over to you, holding it out for you to examine. "So this is the carb," she indicated by tapping the small hole on the side of the bowl with her finger, "you're going wanna hold that down while you breathe in. Got that?" 

The description seemed a little vague, but you nodded anyway sure you'd figure it out easily enough. You fumbled with the lighter for a moment until it felt comfortable in your hand. You were a bit on edge, now not only from Sarah's return but now also from the way the two experienced smokers watched you clumsily handle the pipe. You took a deep breath before putting the mouth piece up to your lips and holding the lighter over the bowl. You breathed in and the smoke that entered your lungs was warm and thick making your throat burn and tickle slightly. You pulled the device away from your mouth holding in the smoke and your need to cough, before releasing as slowly as you could. Your mind swirled, growing slightly hazy, and you sighed glad for the relief you would soon feel. 

You passed the pipe to Chandler who easily took her own hit and passed it to the cat monster. By the time it had gotten back to you and you took another deep inhale you could feel yourself start to relax, and your head start to swim. You attributed the quick effects to you being a light weight but you also didn't know how strong the stuff Chandler had was. 

"What's got you all twisted man?" Chandler asked you again once you seemed to loosen up.

"Morrigan's mom showed up." You groaned letting your head fall back against the couch. "Fucking bitch." you muttered, giggling despite yourself. 

"That's rough dude." Chandler nodded understandingly. 

"I don't get it, why's that so bad?" B.P. asked smoke twisting languidly up from his lips. 

"She's a soul sucking manipulative whore." You answered easily while staring up at the yellowing ceiling of the apartment building.

B.P. sighed with understanding, that you weren't sure he actually had for your situation, as he leaned back in his chair. "I know the type. They seem to accept ya for a while, and you come to enjoy their presence until one day that all gets turned on its head when you realize they're just using you for your burgers." As he spoke he seemed to struggle more and more to keep his composure and, by the end, he was shaking in his chair, eyes wide as if staring into the void as, his fist clenched. You felt as though you were right in assuming he didn't really get what you were going through.

"Ya B.P. that's... that's right man." You agreed despite yourself, in an albeit slightly sarcastic manner, taking the pipe for yourself again. Each time you hit the pipe you felt a bit hazier. You likened it to the feeling of getting drunk, but instead of feeling heavy and mind sluggish you felt lighter and more giddy.

You continued to grow more giddy, more giggly before eventually Chandler put a stop to your smoking all together. She offered you the couch to crash on, but you passed on it. Instead you left, assuring Chandler that you would be fine on your own. The walk to your apartment building wasn't too long and the night sky looked so pretty.

Somehow, instead of back home you wound up in the park with your camera out taking, probably blurry, photos of the sky. You remembered your time with Sans in the planetarium and tried to see enough of the stars through the light pollution to make out any of the constellations. You were failing though so instead you just watched the wispy clouds pass over the moon.

You had stubbornly been avoiding answering your buzzing phone all night since you left the soccer game. You didn't want to deal with answering why you ran, honestly you were ashamed you did. You kicked yourself for leaving your brother alone with Sarah, and the thought of the monsters meeting her twisted your stomach. You hated that you weren't there as a buffer, to vent the rage you had against her. Your soul hurt knowing that you acted so cowardly and disgracefully. Still you weren't ready to face the consequences just yet, so you still forced yourself to ignore your phone. You couldn't help but laugh at your own weakness before distracting yourself by scrolling through the pictures you took that night.

A sudden glimmer of blue light caught your currently easily gained attention and you looked up with your camera still in front of your face. Looking through the view finder you saw the distraught looking short skeleton. You giggled as you took a picture, for some reason very amused by the concerned look on his usually smiling, sometimes smug, face.

He seemed to approach you quicker than humanly possible. You weren't sure if he was teleporting or if your current state distorted your view of time. 

"Sansy!" You greeted playfully, your voice taking on a pitch and tone more girly and bubbly than usual. You flung your arms open wide as if to hug the skeleton. 

He ignored your attempt for an embrace, instead gripping your chin and tilting your head up to examine, probably noticing your dilated pupils. Or maybe they were red, you weren't sure. "are you high?" He asked seriously, his face and tone both concerned and maybe just a bit annoyed, sighing at your appearance. 

You chuckled and shrugged. "Maybe."

Sans pulled out his phone and made a quick call. "i found her. ya i know... i'm taking her home. call off the search." he hung up the phone and dragged a hand down his face in a stressed out gesture. "you know everyone's been looking for you right?" He said turning his attention back to you.

You laughed again at his words. "You guys shouldn't bother. I left Gabriel alone like an asshole, I'm not worth a fucking search party." You fell back laying on the ground again staring up at the moon.

Sans sighed again for what felt like the millionth time that evening. He took both of your hands in his and hauled you back into a sitting position, looking purposefully into your eyes. "what's the deal with that woman anyway, your brother didn't tell us much of anything."

You didn't laugh again, you couldn't even smile. "Sarah." You muttered somberly. "She... she's Morrigan's birth mom, Gabriel's high school girlfriend." Sans didn't interrupt, sensing that you needed to get this out. You did need this, you've kept this bottled up for so long. "Me and Gabe were so close, even as kids, until he met Sarah in high school. He's so sappy, such a romantic he fell in love so deeply, so completely. I thought I was being jealous and selfish when she first started taking up all of his time, our family hardly saw him, he stopped hanging out with his friends. She seemed so nice at first..." You looked down no longer able to meet his eyes. "She broke my first camera, scheduled dates on my birthday, told Gabriel that I harassed her... as soon as they graduated they moved to the city, far away from anyone he knew. She forced him to give up his dreams of art to support her 'acting' career. Sarah only got worse, more abusive, the more he gave up to make her happy." You pulled your hands out of his bony ones to wrap around your knees pulling your legs close to your body making yourself as small as possible. "Have you seen his scar?" your voice barely above a whisper as you asked. Sans nodded silently. "When she got pregnant, that's when things got... physical. I don't know if it was the hormones or what but she'd scream about how he ruined her life, her career, her body. She grabbed a knife during one of their fights, he put his arm up to block her... that's why he has the scar on his arm. She left right after Morrigan was born, when the doctors put the baby in her arms after giving birth was the only time she ever held her daughter. I moved out here for college soon after. I went to school, worked, and took care of both of them... Gabriel was so crushed, he still loved her for a while until it finally sunk in what happened to him over the past couple of years." You felt a warm, bony finger touch your check and only then did you notice that sometime during your rant, you began crying.

"c'mon princess, no one blames you for needing to take a breather. let's get outta here, it's gettin' cold, you know I get chilled to the bone." Sans said, voice soft, standing from his crouched position and holding out his hand offering to help you up.

You laughed mirthlessly, both at the nickname and the pun. Putting your camera back into your messenger bag you took the offered hand, wobbling a bit as you stood. "I'm not a princess." You muttered wiping at your face furiously drying your eyes.

He chuckled at your weak defense, "ya whatever." he agreed in a placating manner. "you wanna grab a coffee or water to help sober you up a bit?"

"Are you asking me out Mister Skelly Man?" You giggled feeling a bit better, your haze settling you back into a playful mood.

Sans chuckled at that, his smile reappearing. "mister skelly man huh? imma be honest, that's a new one." He seemingly ignored your implication that he meant the offer as a date, leading you to a small diner that was probably open 24 hours a day.

He guided you to a booth and you plopped down, resting your head against the cool table. You started to feel yourself crashing, growing sleepy. "I'm sorry." You mumbled into the chilly surface.

"for what?" Sans asked raising a hand to flag down a waitress.

"Everything, that I ran... That you got dragged you into this... that humans suck." you pressed your forehead harder into the wood.

"two coffees please." Sans ordered from the older woman who was working the late shift at the diner. She nodded and turned back to the counter. Sans faced you with a small frown. "c'mon kiddo you can't bare the sins of the world on your shoulders."

"Yeah well I'm still shit." you groaned.

"no you're not. trust me i've seen humans" he paused almost like he was contemplating, "and monsters be really horrible. you aren't anywhere close to that."

You glanced up at your friend as coffee was placed next to you at the table to see a sincere expression on Sans's skull.

"thanks." Sans nodded to the waitress but kept his eyes on you as if making sure you're ok. She nodded back, leaving the table again.

"You're just saying that cause I'm cute." You joked sarcastically, trying to defuse the seriousness of the conversation.

"na." he shrugged indifferently.

"What you don't think I'm cute?" You teased.

"didn't say that." he offered vaguely, smiling playfully. 

You cradled your hands around the warm mug, not drinking it, just letting it heat your palms. "You're a great friend Sansy." you smiled tiredly.

"ya you too princess." Sans agreed sipping on the black coffee.

Your eyes grew heavy and all sense of time slipped from you. You think you remember Sans gently lifting you from the booth and carrying you, but you couldn't be sure.


	18. Sweatpants Kind of Day

You woke up in your bed, clothes from yesterday still on, yet now smelling very distinct. You sniffed your blanket noticing that it too absorbed the scent of your less than legal activities. You groaned knowing you'd have to wash them, maybe a few times to get the smell out. Of course you remembered most of last night, but you just couldn't remember how you ended up back home. Getting up you looked around finding Hemlock’s bowl half full of food but Vincent missing. He must have gone out early in the morning. You vaguely remember him saying something about a meeting with some small software company. You plopped down on the couch and pulled your phone out of your pocket. Evidence of last night was all over it with the ridiculous amount of missed calls and texts displayed on the screen. You ignored the calls, but scanned through the texts. Mostly they were the same 'Where are you's and 'Are you ok's, but you hesitated to look through anything you got from Gabriel... Or Sans for that matter. For a second that really confused you. Why did you feel that way? Were you really any closer to him than the others you've met, so much so that his texts would hurt you more than theirs? You guessed you must be or it wouldn't bother you, but you just couldn't put a finger on why. You replied quickly to most of your friends, a quick and simple alert telling them you were sorry, that you were fine. Your breath caught when you lingered over your brother’s name. You put the phone down, resolved to eating and changing before opening up that can of worms. 

You showered, scrubbing the smell of weed out of your hair and sweat and whatever grassy grime you picked up from the park off your skin. Then, for a long moment, you just let the hot water pelt you and roll down your body. You searched your room for something soft and warm to put on, not only because of how cold it had gotten, but because you would much prefer something comfy today and if that meant sweat pants and a fluffy jacket, you weren't going to argue.

After you stalled about as much as you could before you opened up Gabriel's text messages. They started a bit angry and it hurt your heart... Maybe your soul, to look at them. As if you betrayed something you were, something you stood for, along with someone you loved because of a moment of cowardice. However, the string of texts almost immediately shifted to words of concern and sorrow. That did not make you feel any better, if anything it twisted the knife. The last few texts voiced relief, you supposed that Sans had let him know that you had been found and were ok, and of course, because believing anyone in discomfort was your fault ran in the family, HE apologized to YOU.

You sighed deeply placing your head in your hands unaware if you wanted to cry or to scream: maybe both. Pulling yourself together like you always did, always had to, you opened a new text to reply. No one ever really made you feel like it was your job to be the strong one for the both of you, but ever since you were kids Gabriel was the cool one, the passionate one, overall emotional and prone to heartache. You however, were the one people came to for harsh honesty, know to make jokes and light of bad times, and the one who always picked your big brother up when he fell.

'I'm on my way.' was all you wrote. Letting it send as you grabbed your bag and slipped on a pair of soft, worn shoes ready to head out the door, leaving the washing to be done for later. Before you left you glanced down at your phone, which dutifully reminded you Sans's texts remained unread, but you shoved the phone deep into you pocket. He knew you were ok, it couldn't hurt to put that off for a little while longer.

-

"Why is she back? I thought last we heard she moved to the west coast!?" You protested as soon as Gabriel answered his door instead of a greeting. 

"I dunno," He shrugged "I'm not happy about this either you know." He sighed shutting the door behind you.

You deflated. "I know, I'm sorry. I was just happy to never see her again and she had to go and ruin that." You pouted dramatically flopping onto Gabriel's sofa. 

"You were the one that wanted to tell Morri about her." He mumbled slumping down next to you.

"Yeah, letting her know where she came from and she's better off the way things are, not so she'd ever have to meet the bi- ... Is she home?" you asked cutting yourself off from cursing.

"Toriel offered to let her spend the night in case Sarah tried to follow us home or something." 

"In that case, fuck the bitch." You concluded in a matter of fact tone.

"Hey... can I ask you something?" Your brother asked in a timid way, you were sure you were one of the only people to ever see him this small and unsure.

"Of course." You responded easily.

"Am I weak?" He whispered a little shakily.

"What?" You asked turning to face him more fully, pulling yourself up cross-legged on the couch.

"Just, I like to think I'm better than what she made me... but I rely on you so much, I've hidden the truth from my daughter, I'm just... I don't know." He concluded in a rambling way.

"Gabriel, look at me." You said softly, but sternly.

He rolled his eyes but lifted his head up anyway.

"You are not weak, you raised her on your own. I've helped a bit here and there because I love you, but trust me if you relied on me solely... Morri would be a different person. She is sweet and kind because she's your daughter. I love her, hell I love kids and family, the whole nine yards but I would be shit at raising a kid... at least right now anyway. So yeah, I've given you some money and watched her a bit. Though if you look at her and are proud of who she is, you should be proud of yourself, because that was all you Gabe."When you saw the small smile creep its way back onto his face you patted his cheek. "There ya go. There's that dumb, goofy smile of yours."

"Oh HaHa, my smile is precious and you know it." He answered back, working back to his normal lively self. "You know I got the looks in the family."

"Oh yeah, and what did I get?" You rolled your eyes.

"The brains, and all that honesty and morality shit." Gabriel smiled lopsidedly. 

"UGH! You're so cheesy you make me wanna barf." You moaned, but smiled anyway.

He laugh joyfully. "Ya, ya well I'm going to pick Morrigan up. You going to hang around?"

"Na I'll stick around while you shower and get dressed though, you smell like depression and pity." You said jumping out of your seat pulling Gabriel up with you.

Gabriel's face fell for a moment, though he quickly hid it. "I know, it's my new fragrance. Lovely isn't it?" He joked as you pushed him towards his room.

"Go." you reinforced, playfully shoving him into the other room.

You sighed and sat back down on the sofa. You didn't have much else to do to put of checking Sans texts. You still didn't like that it made you feel this bad to ignore them. Maybe you just weren't use to having this many people care about your well being enough to blow up your phone, but checking others texts was much easier than this. Why does the thought of his concern, anger, or disappointment hurt worse? Well you pushed those thoughts out of your head like it was your job and grabbed your phone finally opening the nagging notification of Sans's texts.  
The first one from soon after you ran read 'yo princess, anyone ever tell ya it's rude to bail without saying goodbye?' For some reason the passive nature of that message calmed you, caused you to smile fondly. You kept reading, 'i didn't realize you were so fast but really it isn't fair when you get a head start' you couldn't help but chuckle at that. 'c'mon imma bit old for hide and seek sweetheart' From there the texts got a bit more serious 'ok as fun as this is... it's getting real dark seriously, where are you' and the even more disheartening 'everyone is worried about you'. You paused reading there, taking a moment to bury your head in your hands. You hated making people worry about you, maybe it was one of the reasons you kept people distant. You were use to being self reliant. You picked your phone back up seeing the next message 'look i promise, as much as i really hate promises, i will find you' For some reason that made you feel warm, even though honestly out of context it could sound really creepy. The rest must of came in after he found you. 'you owe me one for making this old bag of bones carry you up all of those stairs' Well that explained how you got home last night. The last text was a simple 'g'night princess.'You opened a new text and then sat there staring at the blank box for far too long. You sighed and finally settled on 'Thanks for carting my sorry ass home last night, and for making sure I didn't do anything too dumb.'

"You ready to head out?" Gabriel asked tossing the towel he was using to dry his hair back into his room with no care for where it landed. 

You looked up from your phone. "Huh? Sure, yeah." You nodded standing up and following him out of the apartment.

He locked up and you walked down the stairs with him, you kept watching him out of the corner of your eye. It hurt to see the somber look on his face when he wasn't talking or distracted, like any moment he had to his own thoughts was dark, reliving the pain of freshly reopened wounds. It hurt even more because you didn't really know what to do, you could stay with him and keep his mind from wandering... Though you didn't know how well that would really work, and time with Morrigan where he knew she was safe and they were together would do better than anything you could possibly offer. Gabriel tried to give you a ride home, but you shrugged. You weren't even sure you wanted to sit at home alone today. "It's kinda nice out, chilly, but nice. I think I'll walk."

"Whatever weirdo." He joked getting in his car and you pretended not to notice the way his smile fell a little to soon after the jab.

"Love you." You said as he shut his door, he seemed to catch it as he turned to you with a small smile. It was much smaller than his usual mischievous lopsided grins but it was real and that was all that truly mattered.He drove away towards Toriel's place and you watched him go, standing on the sidewalk for a bit longer than the time it took to watch him go. You didn't know how long you might of stood there if your phone hadn't vibrated calling you back to reality. You looked down and smiled seeing Papyrus's name on your screen.

'HELLO HUMAN FRIEND! SANS INFORMED ME THAT YOU ARE FEELING BETTER! I AM SO GLAD TO HEAR THIS, I INSIST YOU COME OVER! THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THAN FRIENDS AFTER A BAD DAY!' 

You smiled down at the text, it was eager and honest. You couldn't help but leap at the idea of spending the day around that kind of positive energy. 'Ya ok, I'm in."

-

Papyrus didn't even wait for you to knock before flinging open the door and greeting you. "HELLO MY DEAR FRIEND! I AM SO GLAD YOU CAME OVER!"

"Of course." You smiled, his happiness easily winning you over. For a moment you again thought about the possibility of some monsters having some sort of emotional aura. You felt the urge to ask, but remembering Sans's previous unhelpful answers, you dropped the thought.

"COME IN." Papyrus moved to the side in a theatrical gesture waving one gloved hand into the entry hall.

"Oooh so gentlemanly." You cooed at him as you entered.

"OF COURSE, THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS A GENTLEMAN." He stood up a little straighter, his pose exuding confidence and pride. 

When you got into the house you heard the yipping of the small white dog as he happily waddled up to you. "Oh hey Ann." You bent down to pet him and he dropped something at your feet as he soaked in your attention. "Is this your, uh... sock?" you asked pointing to the clothing item the fluffy dog dropped. 

"AGH! NO! SANS REFUSES TO PICK UP HIS SOCKS SO THE ANNOYING MUTT CARRIES THEM, LEAVING THEM EVERYWHERE I ONCE FOUND ONE ON THE CEILING FAN!" Papyrus huffed crossing his arms.

"How did the little guy manage that?" You asked amazed by the revelation.

"it was a bit ruff but when he puts his mind to it, anything is pawsible." Came Sans's voice from the living room.

It was almost like he was listening in for a perfect opportunity. You're immediate response is usually to groan at the sudden barrage of puns, but you couldn't help but laugh as Papyrus overreacted for you. 

"SANS! YOUR SOCK AND I ARE WAITING FOR AN APOLOGY." He threw his hands in the air in a sign of irritation, stomping off to the living room, leaving you little option but to follow him.

"so i'm guessing you're not a fan, huh paps?" Sans replied easily, his lazy grin widening across his face.

Papyrus went from rampaging indignantly to staring Sans down silently and sternly.

Sans watched him for a moment but when it didn't seem like the mood was going to shift anytime soon he leaned back into the couch and gave you a nod in greeting. "hey."

Just like that embarrassment washed through you like a tidal wave, the reality of what happen last night suddenly coming to you. You basically sobbed like a big high baby on his shoulder unloading your family's emotional baggage on to him. "I'm sorry." you muttered without really thinking about it.

"hm?" Sans hummed in reply propping his skull up on his hand. 

"I mean I've known you guys for like what a month and you got dragged into my mess. You really didn't have to look for me... I really don't think I've earned that level of... I don't know friendship? Concern? I mean don't get me wrong I appreciate that you got me home but..." you trailed off lamely when you realized you were rambling. 

Your rant seemed to shake Papyrus out of his glare, instead both of the brothers were watching you curiously. Papyrus had his head tilted to the side as if he was trying to figure out a confusing math problem. Sans on the other hand still looked lazy and content in posture, but his expression seemed a bit darker, more unsure.

"Do you not like our friendship?" Papyrus asked more quiet than normal. 

"What? No! I mean yes? I mean I really like that we're friends it's just I don't think I deserve all of... this." You gestured vaguely.

"earned, deserve... what did you plan on bribing us?" Sans spoke up, trying to infuse a small amount of humor back into the awkward situation. 

"I WOULD NEVER ACCEPT SUCH A BRIBE!" Papyrus declared.

"What about a present?" You asked half genuinely curious, half gracefully accepting Sans out to change the subject to a lighter tone. 

"HMMM." Papyrus stroked his chin in deep thought. "YES, BUT I WOULD GET YOU ONE IN RETURN." Papyrus answered as if he had just solved a tricky riddle.

"i'd accept a bribe."

"SANS!" Papyrus turned his attention back on his brother.

"No, it's ok. He can not like me if he wants." You pouted, forcing the dejected look to cover your smile. 

"if you're going to pull that, i'm gonna go get a soda. have fun princess." Sans shrugged, pulling himself up from the couch strolling out of the room and over to the kitchen.

"Aw come on I was kidding!" You called out after him, but he just waved your comment off.

"DO NOT WORRY ABOUT HIM, FRIEND! SANS SIMPLY CAN NOT TAKE A JOKE." Papyrus dismissed his brother's actions. "IT'S OK WE CAN HAVE FUN WITHOUT HIM! WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO?"

You thought about it for a moment, though you were glad that he was providing you a distraction, you didn't want to do anything intensive. "Oh! I know." You dug through you bag pulling out your handheld. "I've been meaning to show you this puzzle game I've been playing. I could use your help too, I'm stuck on this one level and it's driving me crazy." You explained holding the portable system up for emphasis. 

"OF COURSE I WILL GLADLY HELP, YOU SEE I AM QUITE GOOD AT PUZZLES!" Papyrus agreed.

"Good." You smiled stealing the spot on the couch Sans abandoned and patting the seat next you. Papyrus took the offered seat and watched your screen come to life excitedly.

You explained your problem to Papyrus and showed him the level, which to your surprise he figured out fairly quickly pointing out the correct path. You stared at him amazed, you've been stuck on that puzzle for a while and he just breezed past it. "Ok Paps, that's too cool! I have to bring over my system so we can play Portal 2 Co-op. You'd love it. it's a puzzle game with robots."

"PAPS?" Papyrus questioned and you stalled noticing that you picked up on Sans's nickname for his brother.

"Oh yeah sorry, is that weird?" You asked wondering if it was one of those things where only Sans was allowed to use it, if you crossed some line with your love for nicknames.

"OH NO, IT IS FINE. MY FRIENDS CALL ME THAT SOMETIMES... I GLADLY INVITE YOU TO DO SO AS WELL!" Papyrus agreed pulling you into a crushing hug. 

"don't look now paps, but i think you caught a human." Sans commented as he strolled back into the room.

"Yeah, I've been rib caged." You monotonously punned back.

Papyrus dropped his hold of you immediately "SANS! YOU ARE A BAD INFLUENCE!"

Sans chuckled and leaned against the couch. "ya i must be getting to her, you could say she was... under the influence."

"Oh come on!" You groaned. "Do you let anything go?" 

"why would i let you go princess, you're so much fun to mess with."

"Yeah, and you're a regular Prince Charming." You rolled your eyes.

Your lazy day of recovery turned into a long day of playing games and bantering with the brothers. You were glad, you had gotten really comfortable with them. There seemed to be far less lonely days lately.


	19. Play Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I know, I know I fell off the face of the world for a little while... Ok for longer than a little while. I promise I had a good reason. I moved! I haven't had internet access for a bit but now I'm back with a brand new chapter. It's on the longer side as a bit of a sorry. Not just a filler piece either full on plot development and everything.
> 
> Please leave a comment, I've missed hearing from you guys!

The days got easier, Sarah didn’t show up again and you had your fingers crossed that she accomplished whatever bitchy mission she had in mind and went back to the hell pit she had crawled out of. Soon enough Morrigan’s school play was opening, it was a lovely distraction as things had begun to settle back to normal. The group, that was your brother and Vincent, and the larger group of monsters that you had all quickly grown close to had all gone to the school together to see it and support Morrigan in her first school play. It was really cute what they did with the story of the Wizard of Oz, casting the monster children to play the humans and the human kids to play all of the characters from the fantasy world you mused from your seat in the gymnasium/auditorium. 

You were sat between Gabriel and Sans, with the others in various seats nearby, all waiting for the curtain to rise and the play to start. Other parents and family members, monster and human alike, filtered into the room also taking their seats. Most carried cameras, to take video or photos of their children dolled up in costumes and probably taking their first steps toward refining playing pretend into an actual coherent story. You smiled at the pride and love that seemed to thrum in the air, radiating off of these parents. Gabriel had even seemed to relax, easy smile back on his face, worries forgotten, at least for the moment. You knew when he first heard about her interest in the play he couldn't separate the idea from Sarah and her insane need for attention that pushed her towards acting. In your happy haze, you paid little mind to the clacking sound of high heels approaching. You were aware when a couple sat behind you, but you didn’t pay them any attention.

That was, until you heard her voice.

"Gabriel, darling, you should have told me our little girl was following in her mother's footsteps." You could just hear the cruel smirk she must have on her face from the way it shaped the words in an almost sinister purr. Gabriel froze in place, eyes stubbornly facing forward, like if he didn’t see her it wouldn’t be real. The rest of the group got tense as well, and you grabbed your brother’s hand.

“You shouldn’t be here Sarah, you have no right- “You hissed through clenched teeth, determined to stick to your guns this time.

“Oooo, you can still speak, I was worried when you ran off without so much as a hello last time.” Sarah cooed in her saccharine voice, making your blood boil further. 

“Leave.” You hissed again. You could see your brother wince, and you realized that you were gripping him too tightly so you, with some effort, unclenched your fist.

“What? I bought a ticket, I’m allowed to watch these adorable aspiring actors.” She flaunted in a way that might have actually sounded innocent if you didn’t know what she was capable of. 

“Sarah.” Gabriel found his voice, suddenly snapping, though quietly trying not to gather too much attention. “You gave her up you don’t get to see her now.” He still refused to turn around to face her. 

You shuffled in your seat you were so eager to just leave, but you knew you couldn’t leave Gabe, not again. Sans must have seen you fidgeting, and worried you were getting flighty. He grabbed your hand in his skeletal one and pulled you close so he could whisper to you. “hey kiddo, no one’s gonna blame you if wanna get outta here, but i’m sure we’re all real sick’a chasing you. so give me a warning before you bolt?” 

You smiled at him about to tell him that it was ok, that you weren’t going to run, when Sarah decided to speak up again. 

“Well isn’t that just the sweetest, you’ve given up humans altogether. I mean I know you couldn’t get a date to save your life but I didn’t think it’d make you ‘change teams.’ I mostly assumed you’d just get a cat, or five.” She shrugged passively as if what she just said somehow fell into the realm of polite, casual conversation. “Though I suppose you were always one to get too attached to animals so, monster, cat what’s really the difference huh?”

This time you were squeezing Sans’s hand too hard, but you don’t think he even noticed. He looked somewhere between resigned to hearing comments like that and apologetic you had to hear it because of him. It only made you madder that he didn’t seem angry as if he was too used to it.  
“Excuse me?” You all but growled, you felt as though all of the anger and anxiety that Sarah had caused you over all these years was boiling up, about to finally explode out of you. You would have stood up and probably caused a huge scene that you honestly didn’t think you would mind making. Sans wouldn’t let you though, he kept you rooted in your seat with your hand still in his. “Listen here you fucking bitch,” You said keeping your voice at a low volume, to keep kids… like Frisk who was only a few seats away, from hearing. “There is a difference, a big damn difference. I mean me dating a monster isn’t sad, what is sad is you dating that fucking sheep of man who is letting you drag him to a child’s fucking school play so you can harass your ex-boyfriend.” You rolled your eyes gesturing to the older man, who until now sat there glaring vaguely.

The man’s face grew red and his glare was suddenly directed at you. Sarah looked offended, but also slightly amused as if she didn’t think you would actually stand up to her. Though her expression quickly settled on upset and pouty, as if she was trying to force herself to cry for a scene. She huffed and stood up, “You were always so mean to me.” She whined loudly, pitifully whimpering for good measure before stomping off dragging the angry lump of a man with her. 

You knew people were watching the scene unfold, Sarah had brought attention to you. You waved weakly to gawkers and sunk further into your chair. 

“Well that could have been more awkward.” Vincent supplied, easing the tension slightly at least for the people at the epicenter of the outburst.

“Ya, ya whatever.” You muttered, glancing over to Gabriel. He seemed to still be a bit shell shocked, you nudged him and he forced a smile.

“Sorry she insulted your boyfriend.” Gabriel joked trying to placate you even though he was just, if not more, upset. 

You groaned at the implication. “She was closer with the crazy cat lady idea.” You rolled your eyes making the self-deprecating joke at your own stagnant dating life.

“aww, c’mon princess. don’t throw away our relationship after you just defended my honor.” Sans smirked, pressing his free hand to where a human would have a heart. His playful mocking was comfortable and familiar and it brought an actual smile to your face. You looked down to avoid his gaze, noticing your hands still intertwined.

“You can let go now, I promise I’m not a flight risk.” You teased lightly slipping your hand out of his.

He didn’t get much of a chance to respond as the crowd was hushed as the lights were dimmed. The play was beginning, and Sarah was forgotten for the moment.

-

Gabriel fawned endlessly over Morrigan, praising her performance as one of the munchkins. Morrigan and Gabriel’s enthusiasm was not deterred even though she, along with pretty much all of the younger children, were basically background characters. It was sweet and pure and nothing made you feel sicker than the idea that Sarah wanted to ruin it. You all joined in, Morrigan soaking up all of the attention. It seemed as though everyone quickly grew exhausted and spoke of splitting up and going home. Emotionally drained from the day’s events, you passed on Vincent’s offer to join him for food as the idea of home was more enticing. Sans, having heard this, offered to walk you home. You brushed it off as you always did from the first time he suggested something similar. He talked you into letting him tag along to the bus stop at the very least. You didn’t bother to fight back on the issue, too tired and growing far too used to his insistence to accompany you after dark when he could. You did, however, remind him you were not a child and were just fine to do so on your own, but relented the issue for now. Honestly you enjoyed the company. 

The majority of the walk had been in comfortable silence, with the occasional quip or small talk tossed in from either side. When you reached the corner, Sans took up a seat on the empty bench in the little glass enclosure of the bus stop, looking like he could nod off at any moment and you began to pace, frantic energy returning. You hated the way stuff like this nagged at you, you pushed so much to the back of your mind filing it away to be processed later but certain things stuck with you. Someone fucking with your family was definitely one of those things. You couldn’t let it go. It just stung on such a basic level it was almost primal.

You sighed deeply, more exasperated than angry. "I've met my fair share of bitches, but that woman is just... soulless." You started suddenly blurting out the thoughts that have been swirling around your mind.

Sans shrugged aimlessly, watching his shoes as he swung his feet idly rather than watching you pace. "heh, I dunno ‘bout soulless." He offered up dryly, no real humor behind the words.

You scoffed spinning on your heels to face him, crossing your arms in the process. "What, are you actually defending her?" You asked suspiciously, appraising him.

Sans rolled his eyes, or really the little dots of whitish blue light in his otherwise empty eye sockets mimicked the motion of an eye roll. "no, trust me her soul is pretty dark and heavy with sin. it is there though." Sans mentioned flippantly, though his tone seemed different… a mixture between passive and matter-of-fact judgmental. His eyes, those little dots of light seemed hazy and unfocused.

"Ok I'm really not sure we're on the same page anymore or even the same book... What the hell are we talking about?" You asked, resigned to sitting down on the bench next to him resting your head back on the glass wall behind you as you stared up unseeingly at the sky. 

"souls?" he said almost unsure, voice back to normal and his eyes were sharp and focused once again.

Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What like metaphorically?" You asked, trying to puzzle out what was being said turning to face him.

“humans really don’t know a lotta stuff huh?” he smirked mockingly.

“Yes, I get it, I’m the big dumb human. Please explain to my fragile non-magic mind.” You droned on sardonically. 

Sans chuckled at your retort. "everyone has a soul, they're a real thing." He shrugged easily leaning back with you.

"You're dropping some really heavy stuff on me man..." you intoned carefully, “Are you just fucking with me?”

Sans turned his skull to look at you and smiled. "sorry princess."

"Ok so if you promise you’re not messing with me head, I’m going to need you to explain this soul stuff to me, and I swear if you wave your fingers around and say ‘magic’ I'm leaving you here." You threatened pointing your finger at him.

Sans smirked for a moment before turning to you. "you're no fun. ok so, souls 101.” He clapped, sitting up like he was going into teacher mode. “everybody's got one, they're different colors, though monster souls are white. they grow darker the more LOVE you have."

"Love?" you interrupted. "Now I know you're just fucking with me, aren't you?" You accused, glaring at him.

Sans laughed but shook his head. "wish i was, but LOVE is short for levels of violence, monsters had a lotta time and a lotta fun with acronyms. i think we were all just a bit stir crazy." 

"Do the colors mean anything?" You asked wondrously, wide eyed. Part of you still unsure if this whole thing was real, but another part of you was easily buying into the story Sans was telling you. It was too easy for you to believe him, to trust him. You were unsure why that was so easy for you, trusting people was never this natural for you. Maybe it was his easy, confident demeanor you mused. 

"uh, yeah, they're tied to personality traits." Sans shrugged leaning back again, his enthusiasm for explaining obviously dissipating quickly.

"What color is mine?" You asked curiously, suddenly full of wonder accepting the story you were being told. You sat up crossing your legs and resting your head in your hands.

Sans stared back down at his feet, averting his eyes. "blue." He shrugged again, still not looking up at you.

"Just... blue? What does that mean?" You asked, watching the side of his face trying to pull clues from his expression.

"dark blue?" he offered weakly still avoiding the actual question.

You rolled your eyes, uncrossing your legs again, fidgeting with renewed energy. "Is it pretty?" you joked in sing-song fashion trying to get him to lighten up, bumping his shoulder lightly with yours. 

"heh, you hide it with jokes like that, but you really genuinely care even if no one else does..." He smiled slightly, not turning his head but now watching you from the corner of his eyes.

"I know, I know, I'm such a bleeding heart." You fluttered your eyelashes for dramatic effect accompanying your sarcastic words.

"family, promises, equality, self-reliance... some of the few principles you stick to, right?"

You frowned and really thought about it. You guessed he was right, those things were important to you, you just never really thought of them that way. "I guess, ya?" You said, more like a question than an answer.

"integrity." He said simply, as if you should know the importance of what he was saying.

"Integrity? Like all that honesty and morality crap?" You asked back, unsure of what he meant.

"yep, that's your soul type." He nodded, turning to watch your reaction fully.

"So, uh, blue is integrity huh?" You asked trying to wrap your head around the information.

"yes." he nodded.

"How many types are there?" You asked curiosity picking up again.

"as much as i'd love to give you the full wiki on this, explaining it is like eating a clock."

Confusion flashed across your face, your eyebrows knitting together. It only worsened when glee lit up in his eye. “What?”

"very time consuming." He smirked at his own joke, laughing when you groaned in response.

"Wait!" You asked, something suddenly clicking with you. "Can you see my soul?! Can all monsters do that?" Your eyes were wide and you bounced a little in your seat watching his face eagerly for answers.

You think you could see his cheeks light up light blue again, but again you couldn't be sure under the street lamps and other lights. "no... i can just kinda... sense it? tori can too, but not everyone can." he shrugged and averted his eyes again.

"You didn't answer me though...." he looked up at you with a slightly confused look. "Is it pretty?" You asked trying again to lighten the mood.

He busted out laughing, shy demeanor slipping away easily at the more comfortable mood. You both smiled at each other comfortably, not even noticing at first when the bus pulled up to the curb.


	20. It's Begun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am back yet again! I hate when it's a month or two between updates, but as always things are crazy. I hope to Update again soon... cross your fingers things work out.  
> I'd love to hear your comments and feedback, and really if anyone just wants to talk that's ok too.
> 
> Oh yeah, I nearly forgot! Please let me know if I were to start another story would you guys read that too or should I just focus on this for now?

In the glorious yet sluggish light of fall afternoon, another weekend began. You woke up a little before noon, but it was almost one before you finally decided to get up. You rolled out of bed to start your day the same way you started nearly every Saturday: with a bowl of Captain Crunch on the couch. You were aware it was a kind of childish habit to watch tv in your pajamas with sugary cereal, but nothing could really bring you to care. Stepping out of your room, you saw Vincent already on the couch having a staring contest with his phone. It wasn’t that odd of a sight to see your roommate zoned out from an all-nighter and you nearly walked past him to the kitchen. You couldn’t do it though. His eyes weren’t glazed over from lack of sleep, they were focused and nearly panicked. His body seemed tense. You sighed and mentally apologized to yourself for postponing breakfast further before walking over to him.  
“Are you trying to melt that with your thoughts? I think you’re past the age when your X-Men style mutant powers would show themselves.” You asked even as your voice trailed off into a yawn.  
He looked up at your voice, his face a mixture of confusion and helplessness. “It would be easier to summon the willpower to do that.” He whined dropping his phone onto the coffee table.  
“Oh shit, sounds serious. What’s the matter?” You questioned, sitting on the arm of the couch, committing to helping.  
Vincent waved in vague exasperation at his phone, floofing his hair in exaggerated frustration with the other hand while making various disgruntled noises.  
You rolled your eyes, “Mm, yes I see.” You nodded to his inarticulate nonsense and picked the phone up instead, hoping it would give you more reliable answers. Flicking the screen on, you found an empty message screen with Grillby’s number at the top. “You still haven’t texted the guy? He gave you his number he might be hoping for, you know, an actual indication that you’re capable of using a phone.”  
“Yeah well bluh. How… how am I supposed to know what to say? He’s all… nyahh and I’m all blahh.” He blubbered again in an anxious blur.  
“Well actually, I don’t know if you are capable of using a phone.” You sighed, gently patting his head. “I should just send him a ‘hello’ for you.”  
“What? NO! NO N- or.. okay yeah. No wait don’t. You know what? Just… fuck it, get it over with.” He buried himself in his hands, covering his eyes as if you were about to cause him physical pain and he was preparing himself.  
”I can’t decide if your school girl crush is adorable or pathetic.” You muttered more to yourself than the quivering pile of nerves that was your best friend. You typed out a quick message ‘Hey it’s Vincent, sorry I cursed in your face and ran away.’ You smirked at that, it was most likely not a message the monster got often. “There, band-aid pulled off. Feel better?” You asked tossing the phone in to his lap, lack of delicious Captain Crunch probably causing you to be a bit more clipped with him than necessary.  
Vincent didn’t reply verbally but as you headed towards the kitchen you saw him scramble for his phone to check what ‘he’ sent. You laughed to yourself as you fixed your bowl of cereal. “Hey, remember when you had like just a big ol’ doofy crush on Gabe?” You called out to the living room unable to keep the taunting out of your voice.  
You could hear Vincent huff from the other room and you just knew he was saving up an outburst. Chuckling under your breath you took your late breakfast back with you to the other room and got comfortable in your chair, turning the tv on to a cartoon you recorded. It was something Vincent got you into about a kid and his lesbian alien family. It was one you’ve seen before so you set the volume on low and waited for Vincent to pry himself away from his phone.  
“Why are you bringing up my big dumb crush from years ago? I thought we were not to speak of it.”  
“Psh ‘not to speak of it’? Really dude?” You gave him a side-eyed glance with a smile pulling at the corner of your lips. “I’m just saying this reminds me of it, you haven’t been this level of ridiculous about a guy since you first like… came out.” You shrugged, amused expression falling into one more of neutral contemplation.  
“Yeah well…. Shuddup. It was probably the most embarrassing thing that happened in middle school.” Vincent mumbled, a small blush creeping up his cheeks from the memory.  
“Aw c’mon he thought it was sweet, but you have to admit you were a bit too young for him.” You offered with yet another shrug.  
“It’s not like I even tried again for like four years after that.” Vincent’s eyes hardened and his thoughts soured remembering the rest of that day.  
You winced, knowing all too well where his thoughts drifted and you quickly brought the conversation back into a lighter mood. “I’m just saying you’ve got to really like this guy.”  
Vincent’s blush hit its peak, entire face tinted pink, “I think I really do.”  
You smiled and punched his arm playfully, amused at the dreamy look in his eyes. “Isn’t that just the sweetest thing.” You teased between bites of cereal.  
Out of the corner of your eyes you could see his dopey smile and the two of you fell into a peaceful quiet as you half watched the show and you finished your breakfast. A text message alert called out breaking the peaceful spell, causing Vincent to jump forward, nearly falling of the couch to scoop up his phone.  
Vincent stared at the screen, his face morphing from excitement into a frown. “That was yours.” He muttered dismissively.  
“He runs a bar Muffin, he might not be up this early.” You attempted to quell his rising fear as you blindly groped around the couch for your phone.  
“It’s like one thirty!” He whined.  
“On a Saturday, makes sense that he would sleep in.” You shrugged dismissing his complaint.  
He whimpered and you absent-mindedly stroked his hair with one hand as you unlocked your phone with the other. You found a message from Gabriel, ‘Red alert: the season is upon us.’ You smiled widely, childish excitement bubbling up. “It’s begun.” You said cryptically.  
“I really hate when you talk like a movie spy.” Vincent groaned.  
“Family tradition.” You reasoned quickly waving away his comment.  
“You and your brother being huge dorks is not a tradition.” He countered. “What has ‘begun’?” Vincent asked mocking your dramatic tone.  
“Only the best holiday season.” You scoffed like the reason for your excitement should have been obvious.  
“Ahhhh, Halloween.” He nodded in understanding.  
Since Morrigan was old enough to get really excited about a day all about costumes and candy, you had started considering the day that she started to bug her dad about preparing for it as the start of the holiday.  
“Well, if you need me I’ll be staring moodily at my phone until I get a response.” He sighed heading back to his room.  
You rolled your eyes at his melodramatic retreat and started brainstorming costume ideas. You suddenly frowned at a question that had popped into your mind. Worrying your bottom lip with your teeth and bringing your phone back into view you sent a text to Sans, ‘Do monsters celebrate Halloween?’ A little unsure why you chose him out of all the monsters’ numbers you now had in your contacts your eyebrows knitted together in thought. You shrugged, reasoning that you’ve already bugged him with all your monster questions and for one reason or another he became your go to.  
You stared at the phone for a moment, as if you expected an instant reply. You laughed realizing that you had just told Vincent that it was unrealistic to do so. Shaking your head, you took your bowl to the sink to be washed later and went about getting dressed. You had nearly forgotten your phone and the question, but you found yourself searching for it the moment you realized it wasn’t in your pocket. Upon finding it on the couch you were reminded of it by the text alert.  
‘some ya i guess? pretty sure tori takes the kid out and stuff but me and paps have always been too busy to really pay attention to it why is that a thing thats coming up’  
You frowned down at Sans’s text, scandalized by the idea he had never celebrated Halloween, or even knew when it was. You were going to remedy that. ‘YOU’VE NEVER CELEBRATED HALLOWEEN!? OK SCREW ALL MY PLANS FOR THE DAY WE’RE GETTING YOU AND PAPYRUS COSTUMES!’ You grabbed your jacket, you were not kidding in the slightest.  
Your phone alerts you of another text. ‘bullshit you didnt have plans’  
You laughed because of course he was right, instead you just replied, ‘…I do now!’ as you called out a goodbye to Vincent and left the apartment.  
-  
You got out of the cab in front of Sans and Papyrus’s house, you were quickly learning the pain of living without a car. It had never really been a problem before because, it was the city, you could walk nearly everywhere or use the much cheaper public transportation, but now you had friends who lived out on the outskirts too far away to walk to and you couldn’t just bug Gabe for a ride all the time. You sighed at the hit your finances have started to take. You’d figure out something to do about it later. Right now, though you were bubbling with a stupid amount of giddiness and you practically skipped up the walkway to their door.  
You couldn’t help yourself, you grinned widely and as you knocked you called out “Trick or treat!” You giggled to yourself like a child at your own joke.  
The door opened shortly after you knocked, so you knew it was Papyrus before you even saw him, Sans took his time answering the door.  
“HUMAN!” He greeted you loudly, he seemed to smile just as widely as you even if it didn’t appear as if his skull would allow him to do so. “What an odd question, seeing you is clearly a treat, AND SEEING ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MUST BE A TREAT FOR YOU AS WELL.” He paused here to laugh triumphantly, then his gaze turned suspicious, “YOU DIDN’T PLAN A DEVIOUS TRICK YOU?”  
You giggled, you were so enthusiastic you actually giggled, you felt young doing so. “Na, I am trick free. You will hear a bunch of people say it soon though. It’s traditional.” You explained loosely waving with your fingers in a vaguely mystical manner.  
Papyrus looked wide-eyed and curious, “What tradition?” His voice, while still a bit loud, was lowered in an almost awed whisper.  
“All Hallows’ Eve,” you couldn’t stop gesturing and waving your hands in a theatric way as you spoke about it “Though most people call it Halloween now. Do you want to hear the story?” Your smile was so wide it was starting to hurt your face but you couldn’t stop yourself.  
“YES!” Papyrus abandoned all quiet reverence at this point, his rising excitement clearly winning out.  
“Sweet, let’s go inside and get all comfy on the couch, make this a proper story time.”  
“I’LL MAKE HOT CHOCOLATE!” He declared and ran into the house, leaving you in the doorway yet again. You chuckled to yourself and let yourself inside.  
Sans was sitting on the couch looking half bored half amused. “hey.” He nodded to you looking up from his laptop. It was an older, bulkier model, one that would be fine if you just used it to go online and work in Word and Excel but not really run anything intensive.  
“Hey.” You could feel yourself still smiling like a mad man, and you were sure your eyes were twinkling.  
Sans closed his laptop and started to tap his fingers tips across its surface in a rhythmic manner that was strangely calming. “so, what’s the deal with this thing?”  
“Hmm?” You questioned, haven been momentarily distracted by the noise. “Oh, uh Halloween?” You asked, your mind catching back up quickly.  
He nodded with a half shrug.  
“It’s my favorite holiday, I’d trade in Christmas to get a second Halloween, but you’ll have to wait for story time for the lore.”  
He chuckled “the lore? nerd.”  
“Oh no, I am so insulted, you cut me to the quick dear sir.” You feigned offence, even as you still radiated happiness.  
Sans seemed to appraise you fondly for a moment before looking towards the kitchen. “paps’ll be a bit, he refuses to just microwave things, too lazy for ‘em i guess.” He sat his laptop down on the coffee table next to a thick tome, the cover looking well-worn and well-read.  
“What were you reading?” you asked stepping closer to examine it. The title of the book was all but worn off, making it impossible to make out. You looked up at Sans, looking for permission to look at it. He shrugged and you picked the book up to flip through it, finding diagrams of constellations and long passages about stars.  
“is it stellar?”  
You rolled your eyes immediately. “Pretty sure you’ve already used that one.”  
“still a good one.”  
“Hey! Didn’t I say I would take you out to the best stargazing place around here?” You asked, suddenly remembering.  
“actually i’m pretty sure you promised.” He smirked.  
“This is the perfect time of year to do that!” You were now nearly bouncing with excitement, dropping the book back on to the table.  
“i’ll take your word for it.” His smirk softened into a smile.  
“We should do that right after Halloween.” You insisted, finally sitting on the sofa, next to Sans. The instant you sat down, Ann D. came running from somewhere. You didn’t see him before, you can never tell when he’s lurking in the house. At full speed, the fluff ball launched itself into your lap, winding you slightly. The noise you made was somewhere between a laugh and wheeze. “Hey there little guy.” You huffed out trying to regain your air, petting the dog absent-mindedly causing him to wiggle enthusiastically in your lap.  
Soon after Papyrus came out from the kitchen with a tray of mugs in his hands, nearly dropping them when he stopped and stomped suddenly. “YOU ANNOYING MUTT YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED ON THE COUCH!”  
“aw c’mon paps he’s not on the couch, he’s on the human.” Sans defended the dog that lolled lazily in your lap ignoring Papyrus in favor of your petting hand.  
“WELL HE’S NOT ALLOWED ON THE HUMAN EITHER.” He huffed.  
“I don’t mind, would you rather chase Ann D. around or sit down for story time?” You asked trying to defuse his anger, even though it didn’t seem like there was any real convection behind his words.  
Papyrus thought over his choices, and obviously chose to hear your story. He set the tray of hot chocolate down on the coffee table and took up the seat next to you. He curled up the best he could with the limited couch space and his long limbs until he looked settled in.  
“Ready?” You asked.  
He nodded.


	21. A/N Possible Revamp for Sarcasm and Puns

Ok so...  
I have been kind of going back and reworking old chapters, I haven't changed anything but I have them.  
The thing is when I first started working on this story I didn't have as much of a clear image as where I'm going with it as I do now. I was also dealing with a lot of stuff that made me feel terrible and put of writing until it got to long since the last chapter so I would rush through it.  
I really want to work on this and rewrite it, I would leave the original up! Don't worry.  
Just let me now how you feel about this idea.

Sorry if this was weird and I rambled, feel free to talk to me or ask me questions.


	22. A/N Revamp for Sarcasm and Puns is UP!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/12130296

The first chapter is up I can't wait to see all of you there.  
I know for the first couple of chapters won't be radically changed but a bit fixed.  
I will be updating once a week!


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